What Do School Nurses Do?

As a school nurse, one never can predict how your day will go neither can you predict what happens from one moment to the next. Your day may begin in the parking lot when the first parent or student sees you, or as soon as you enter the building. No time to put away your purse, drink your coffee if you drink that beverage, or even to log on to your computer. Sometimes this may give one a feeling of importance but more realistically there is a huge need for the services of the school nurse.

Interestingly, this is no longer a band aid job as it was traditionally known but one that provides quality service, problem solving and best practice to a cohort of students, staff, parents and community. Many children may have chronic medical conditions and disabilities. They may have come from dysfunctional homes where they are never supervised or coached in many behavioral practices. Therefore, the nurse is the coach, teacher, social worker, counselor, consultant, psychologist, detective and problem solver.

These innocent students believe in you and thinks you have a solution for just about every thing. When they come to the nurse, they expect a solution and they expect it immediately. For instance: I have a head ache and it hurts really bad. "I am dizzy and my mother said to call her and she will come and pick me up." When asked: "Is your parent aware that you are ill?" The response will be either - "yes she knows that I have fever because she gave me medicine and told me go to school and go see the nurse, or I felt sick as soon as I got out of the car, or I was having breakfast in the cafeteria. My stomach really hurt very, very bad."

The school nurse is therefore, task with analyzing this situation, then make a decision and a plan of action that will best handle this situation using best practice. This will not be a unique situation but will be recurrent throughout the day in various circumstances.