What happens when the nurse is sick?

[Julius Seizure]

Hey school nurses, I have a question.

What happens when you are sick? Does the school just not have a nurse that day (but then who gives kids their meds)? Are there substitute school nurses? How does that work? I can't imagine that a substitute school nurse would get called much unless they were in a large school district and subbed for the entire district.

[ohiobobcat]

I had surgery last spring. They had 2 weeks notice, and knew I was going to be out for a month. Our ONE sub happened to be booked the entire month I was out for my surgery (?!?). So the junior high nurse ended up covering my kids AND her kids for one month, which basically quadrupled her workload. With no extra pay, because I am sure that fell under "duties otherwise not specified" in her contract, she even asked! We struggle with subs in our district, but I don't think we are the only school district in this area with this problem. We are even struggling with teacher subs this year, until all of the college kids are home on break- then we have a ton of subs (my own daughter included).

I don't think we have ever considered agency nurses for subs. I will bring that up at the next staff meeting.