School Nurses

School NurseIn cooperation with other health professionals, educators and school personnel, the school nurse assumes the initiative and responsibility for providing a wide variety of health care services designed to promote and protect the student's optimal health status.The nurse is responsible for:Participating in program planning by identifying health needs of children in the school by collaborating in the formation of specific objectives and policies and by making recommendations regarding budget.Implementing program objectives by the organization and completion of activities formulated in the planning phase.Participating in the evaluation of program activities/outcomes by record keeping for all procedures and activities, conducting or participating in studies of various aspects of the school health programs, designing and/or participating in research concerning school health and health education, analyzing personal effectiveness within the school health program, and evaluating school nursing practice and utilizing consultation, supervision and continuing education for improvement.The nurse is also responsible for:Systematically assessing the health status and health needs of the school children through periodic and episodic health appraisal using observation, physical examination techniques, measurements and review of medical, dental and psychological examinations, collection of a health history, assessment of growth and development and psychosocial health, periodic screening of at-risk populations to detect visual problems, hearing loss, scoliosis or other conditions, periodic conferences with teacher, other school staff, the child and his/her family, and other relevant persons for early detection of health problems or learning and perceptual disabilities, and observation of students in the classroom and during play or recreation periods as a means of evaluation.Planning and carrying out appropriate interventions once the health needs are known, which include provision of health education or personal counseling to the child and family, referral to physician or other community resource, initiating a school health team conference, participation as the health specialist on the child's education evaluation team in order to interpret the child's health status and needs as they pertain to development of an individual education plan, crisis intervention in the event of a serious injury or accident, medical emergency or emotional disturbance, supervision of first aid care given by other school personnel and direct provision of first aid care when it cannot be delegated to others, provision of immunizations or referrals for some of students whose immunization status is not complete, exclusion of children with communicable disease, and administration of medication or medical treatment as ordered by a physician/nurse practitioner.Following up on those children and school personnel with known illnesses or health problems to ensure their fullest recovery and prompt return to school through a variety of means which may include telephone calls to check progress towards health, home visits, establishing communications with specific community agencies to facilitate referrals, treatment and evaluation of referral outcomes, assessment of homebound referrals and alternative resources of homebound students.Providing health counseling and guidance on an individual basis to assist students and their families in problem solving and decision making about health and development issues, acute illness care, adjustments to changes and limitations stemming from chronic disease, or life styles which affect health, providing health counseling and guidance to a group, working with families and groups of students to identify how their information, attitudes and values affect their health behavior and level of wellness, and informing youth, parents and school personnel about professional health care services and resources available for the identified health problems or concerns.Providing direct health education to a child, youth or parent who consults the nurse about a health or developmental problem, correlating director service activities with the health education curriculum by providing teachers with sufficient information about health appraisals or screening procedures so that they can incorporate this content into their health classes prior to the implementation of such screening procedures, providing students and/or staff with a prepared health talk or discussion related to a current health issue such as a communicable disease outbreak in the school, collaborating with teachers in developing programs and skills needed to work effectively in specific areas for which the school population is at high risk, acting as a resource person to the educators involved in the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of health education curricula, providing information or in-service education to other school staff about health care issues and first aid management, and acting as a resource person in promoting health careers.Making identified health needs known to families and to appropriate health care resources, facilitating the child/family utilization of community resources through referral and support, interpreting identified health problems to school personnel so that appropriate adaptations can be made in the student's class schedule, physical education activities, class lesson plans or the school physical plant, conferring with other health professionals and community groups to increase their awareness of locally identified health needs in the school population, and keeping informed of and/or participating in legislative programs that may have an impact on school health services and health education.These examples of duties are not meant to be all inclusive and nurses may be assigned other related duties as required and directed. Terms of employment: Ten months. Salary to conform to Nurses' contract.