Vision and Hearing

[jess11RN]

Yay! We're back!

I am getting the feeling that it will be proposed by other specialties that I screen hearing and vision in our incoming kindergartners (ie, the kindergartners starting in the 2019-2020 school year) before this school year ends.

Do any of you participate in a kindergarten screening like this?

I love the idea of finding potential issues before the school year starts, however I have some concerns:

1-Any fails, I would be unable to rescreen unless the parent wants to bring the kid back

2-If they passed the vision "screening" parents would hesitate to bring their student for the required kindergarten opthalmological examination.

3-I screen them first thing in the fall (I complete my mass screening within the first 3 weeks of the school year starting). Anything prior to that school year wouldn't be valid, so I would have to repeat everything again (similar to what I already do for our PreK program).

I would love to hear from you guys to see what you do before I'm put on the spot later this week when we have our meeting with the kindergarten team and admin! TIA :)

[jess11RN]

It is state required to have an opthalmological exam before Kindergarten. I only screen the ones who haven't turned in their forms, which is typically about half. I had to fight that battle and last year when they wanted me to vision screen every one of them.

[AdobeRN]

1 minute ago, jess11RN said:

It is state required to have an opthalmological exam before Kindergarten. I only screen the ones who haven't turned in their forms, which is typically about half. I had to fight that battle and last year when they wanted me to vision screen every one of them.

ok - makes sense.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, AdobeRN said:

I get around to screening kinder around Oct/Nov - I save them for last, hopefully by then they can recognize letters well. I do tell teachers that if they have concerns regarding hearing/vision of a student before then or if they need to take to SST before then to let me know and I will screen that particular kid right away.

I learned a new thing from you! What a great idea.

[Amethya]

I screen them around Oct/Nov because by then they have recognized their letters. I do ask their teachers if there are some that we should be concerned about with letters or if they have one they are worried about.

[jess11RN]

UPDATE! I went in to the meeting and explained my concerns. Instead of them having me screen the kids this spring at kindergarten screening, they'll be helping me to heavily push for the state mandated ophthalmology exams!

[kidzcare]

On 1/18/2019 at 8:55 AM, jess11RN said:

UPDATE! I went in to the meeting and explained my concerns. Instead of them having me screen the kids this spring at kindergarten screening, they'll be helping me to heavily push for the state mandated ophthalmology exams!

Awesome!!