School Nurse

School Nurse

Qualified to practice as a Registered Nurse in the State of Mississippi and holds an unrestricted license. Five years experience in nursing. Certified in CPR. Knowledge of sound medical practices. Effective communication skills. Ability to work with administrators, teachers, and students in improving student health.

Reports to: Director of Federal Programs and individual school site principals

Job Goal: It will be the responsibility of the Title I school nurse to provide assistance in pre-kindergarten to high school to meet the daily health needs of students in an education setting.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities: Such duties and responsibilities as may be assigned, including but not limited to:

• Provides preventive health services to facilitate the student's optimal physical, mental, emotional and social growth and development.
• Identifies problems and disabilities and provides such services as case finding, health education, referring and care in order to help prevent serious health problems which would later be more difficult and costly to address.
• Promotes and protects the optimal health status of school age children.
• Provides health assessments: Obtains a health history. Screens and evaluates findings of deficit in vision, hearing, scoliosis, growth, etc. Observes the child for development and health patterns in making nursing assessment. Identifies abnormal health findings.
• Develops and implements a student health plan: Interprets the health status of students to parents and school personnel. Initiates referral to parents, school personnel or community health resources for intervention, remediation, and follow through. Provides ongoing health counseling with students, parents, school personnel and health agencies. Utilizes existing health resources to provide appropriate care for students.
• Maintains, evaluates and interprets cumulative health data to accommodate individual needs of students.
• Plans and implements school health management protocols.
• Participates in home visits to assess the family needs as related to the child's health.
• Develops procedures & provides for emergency nursing management for injuries and illnesses: Promotes and assists in the control of communicable diseases. Provides health education and anticipatory guidance.
• Provides direct health education, and health counseling to assist students and families in making decisions on health and lifestyles that affect health. Informs health consumers to assume greater responsibility for their own health. Counsels with students concerning problems such as pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and substance abuse in order to facilitate responsible decision-making practices. Serves as a resource person to the school staff members in health instruction.
• Coordinates school and community health activities and serves as a liaison health professional between the home, school and community.
• Acts as a resource person in promoting health careers.
• Engages in research and evaluation of school health services to act as a change agent for school health programs and school nursing practices.
• Provides consultation to develop health policies and goals & objectives for the school district.
• Participates in the IEP plan development as needed.
• Supports the education process by working to assure the health of the students.
• Communicates clearly with parents, physicians, and public health offices to ensure accurate diagnosis and treatment of students and maintain required documentation.
• Coordinates the care of students with chronic medical needs to include monitoring the medication intake of students with specialized prescriptions.
• Coordinates and instructs proper health education to students of various ages (spread of diseases, unhealthy habits, sex education).
• Ensures each student's compliance with required medical records, such as emergency contact information, allergies, immunization and growth charts.
• Participates in crisis emergency plans for schools to include responses to widespread public health such as Coronavirus pandemic, flu epidemics or lice outbreaks.
• Conducts specialized professional development for appropriate staff members.
• Assists schoolwide programs in the completion of required Title I documentation.
• Maintains clear, well organized and comprehensive documentation of Title I programs.
• Secures resources for schools.
• Participate in professional development activities to enhance professional knowledge.
• Forty-hour work weeks are required, but daily hours may vary according to requirements and job responsibilities.
• Demonstrates prompt and regular attendance.
• Supports the Meridian Public School District Mission, Vision, and Strategic Plan.
• Performs other tasks, as assigned by the Director of Federal Programs.

Terms of Employment: Salary based on assigned nurses pay schedule, reporting 187 days per year.

Evaluation: Annually