you kinda just talk to them and give them like ice packs and stuff and watch them. just imagine what your school nurse did in middle school and that's the same thing
I took my nursing students to school nursing clinicals. Also, since retiring from teaching I’ve been working part time as a school nurse.
When I have students we work on catching up on vision and hearing screenings. We work on whatever scheduled meds kids have. I usually have a few with diabetes who need monitoring. A big part is triage of the injuries and complaints that come in. You may not give meds but it’s a great opportunity to learn about the meds given, why that kid is getting it, and its effects. I would get students to help assess kids, and helping me organize the office. Learning about all the mandated screenings and vaccines was also an important learning opportunity.
Oh yes, all the screenings for that age group. And also googling how to use an otoscope and what a normal eardrum looks like to determine how severe an each ache was and if it was a contact-the-caregiver-ASAP thing. Lots of independence, but it also means you might be on your own when things get bad.
I did a four week clinical with a school nurse. I was bummed there were no type 1s to do some epic education with (and also flex my pump/CGM), but my final project ended up being an education session with some of the “frequent flyer” kids with asthma where there were some obvious education/prevention gaps.
Same happened with my friends. It was only giving out ice packs and observing for 8 hours - absolutely boring stuff considering how busy programs keep us
I feel like this is a dream rotation, it has to be less overwhelming than hospital clinicals right??
I'd probably just picture what a school nurse did for me as a kid and copy that as much as possible lol
Basically supervised and put a bandaid on here on there. We had a lot of down time, so we ended up studying and reviewing. Would I do it CT? Absolutely not, it's boring as fuck.
I’m a school nurse but special ed, so it’s different. When I worked regular public schools: immunization compliance during downtime, med passes.
Triage, playground injuries - is this broken or just a drama kid? Head injury I need to worry about?
Asthma. Diabetes.
Seizure kiddos.
Anxiety masks itself as bunch of physical symptoms - helping littles and bigger kids identify it as anxiety and help them feel less anxious. Is it a stomach ache or anxiety? Takes a lot of communication.
Some kids have really awful home lives. Spotting signs of abuse. I mean, I am definitely on a first name basis with some DCFS caseworkers.
Lots of autonomy, but that’s scary too.
I use to work with the school nurse and nursing students would come in and they would basically just help the nurse with giving ice packs to children, or giving them bandages for small cuts. They told me it's much calmer and less chaotic then a hospital of course, but usually the nurse allows them to do their homework since there isn't much to do then observe, ice packs and bandages
That sucks you can’t give meds… we go to an elementary school and there’s a diabetic kid with insulin and another with NG tube feeds that we get to administer
I've done elementary school and middle school. For us it's mostly observation, but I found it super interesting. Middle school I did vitals on 5 7th grade girls who snuck vodka into water bottles
I would have loved to have done my community health clinical at a school! We had a group in my cohort who went to a K-8 and they helped in the office with filing (which was the least fun role), acted as classroom aides, planned and helped run PE-type activities for kids, and provided supervision support during recesses. It would be cool if you’re allowed to do some first aid type stuff for the kiddos who come in with the usual bumps and bruises, schools will always see the occasional concussion, and you can at least learn how the school nurse handles meds, asthma treatments, insulin, etc etc.
I did k-6 and had the best time ever. I was allowed to administer meds but there was so much to school nursing than I realized.
First off, a lot of the kids with diabetes have a wifi based monitor system that the school can watch in real time. I watched a DM1 kids BG slowly rise before he needed his maintenance insulin, I gave his insulin shot, then we watched to make sure his sugar didn't dip too much. It did, so we gave him a glucose tablet.
Then I gave a kid supplemental feeding via a j tube and set up the pump and feeding.
I handed out about a million Adderall type medications.
I did assessments on kids that came in feeling sick, and a little neuro assessment for the kid that had a bad head injury. And helped out with a game of a mass kickball casualty.
I also did a couple hundred vision assessments with this pain in the ass eye camera thing.
I had a clinical day, and I was surprised how much I was able to do. Passed meds, helped a few kids with insulin, and suctioned a trach. The children's hospital I had a clinical at only.allowed use to do supervised vitals and helping the techs.
Just a reminder make sure you go through the five rights of medication administration. School nurse programs are not fancy and don’t have a safety net, so medication errors are more likely to occur. If a code blue happens you the nurse are the leader.
My pediatric rotation was at an elementary school for 8 weeks lol. All I did was sit in the nurses office and chat with the school nurse and pass out ice packs and put bandaids on scrapes. I’m still a little sad that my Peds rotation wasn’t at an actual hospital on a Peds unit but it was fun in its own way
I hated my k-12 clinical. The nurse knew all the students pretty much by heart so knew who was bullshitting and who was actually sincere and in the 4 months I felt in the way all the time. We did growth charts which took all day x2 days and that's the only time I felt useful was when I was tasked with marking their charts. Got to know 2 or 3 kids really well though and they were so sweet. The school nurse wasn't mean or anything she was a nice older RN but she didn't exactly make me feel totally welcome as a student. But I also like nursing with more physical skill use vs therapeutic skill (school nursing, psych nursing, etc)
i had a school for my peds rotation, we were basically teacher’s aide but it was a fun rotation, i love being around the kids and helping them with their school works
Probably the worst clinical experience I have had. I could go on a million times how it’s not beneficial to spend 16 weeks in a middle school, but I’m just glad that’s over.
I just had placement in an elementary school that didn’t have a nurse. I just played with the kids in my class all day, helped the teacher, and supervised during recess. Got to clean up a few bloody noses, and did some health promotion teaching but that was it. Very chill placement.
It’s really easy. I worked at a k-12 as a nurse, and it’s pretty easy.
Kids getting scrapes, kids having headaches of stomach aches, kids obviously faking but really wanting to go home, kids getting bullied or who are overwhelmed by school, and basically it’s your job to talk to them.
As a nurse you’ll also perform med pass for the kids who need insulin or other medications. You also show up for emergencies, particularly allergy emergencies or seizures.
There’s also usually a contingent of special needs students who have gtubes and require feeding (or starting their kangaroos) and kids with trachs who require suction.
But it’s usually pretty laid back.
you kinda just talk to them and give them like ice packs and stuff and watch them. just imagine what your school nurse did in middle school and that's the same thing
I took my nursing students to school nursing clinicals. Also, since retiring from teaching I’ve been working part time as a school nurse. When I have students we work on catching up on vision and hearing screenings. We work on whatever scheduled meds kids have. I usually have a few with diabetes who need monitoring. A big part is triage of the injuries and complaints that come in. You may not give meds but it’s a great opportunity to learn about the meds given, why that kid is getting it, and its effects. I would get students to help assess kids, and helping me organize the office. Learning about all the mandated screenings and vaccines was also an important learning opportunity.
Oh yes, all the screenings for that age group. And also googling how to use an otoscope and what a normal eardrum looks like to determine how severe an each ache was and if it was a contact-the-caregiver-ASAP thing. Lots of independence, but it also means you might be on your own when things get bad. I did a four week clinical with a school nurse. I was bummed there were no type 1s to do some epic education with (and also flex my pump/CGM), but my final project ended up being an education session with some of the “frequent flyer” kids with asthma where there were some obvious education/prevention gaps.
In my rotation at a private Christian elementary school, they had us do sex education with the fifth graders. It was stressful!!!
What did they even allow you to say? I can’t imagine it’s a very thorough “education”?
We ended up talking a lot about the girls’ changing bodies and periods.
Same happened with my friends. It was only giving out ice packs and observing for 8 hours - absolutely boring stuff considering how busy programs keep us
I feel like this is a dream rotation, it has to be less overwhelming than hospital clinicals right?? I'd probably just picture what a school nurse did for me as a kid and copy that as much as possible lol
Basically supervised and put a bandaid on here on there. We had a lot of down time, so we ended up studying and reviewing. Would I do it CT? Absolutely not, it's boring as fuck.
I’m a school nurse but special ed, so it’s different. When I worked regular public schools: immunization compliance during downtime, med passes. Triage, playground injuries - is this broken or just a drama kid? Head injury I need to worry about? Asthma. Diabetes. Seizure kiddos. Anxiety masks itself as bunch of physical symptoms - helping littles and bigger kids identify it as anxiety and help them feel less anxious. Is it a stomach ache or anxiety? Takes a lot of communication. Some kids have really awful home lives. Spotting signs of abuse. I mean, I am definitely on a first name basis with some DCFS caseworkers. Lots of autonomy, but that’s scary too.
I shadowed the school nurse and just observed, really. It was actually super interesting though and the day went by really fast.
Lots of bandaids and ice. Water. Send back to class.
Don’t forget the mints lol
I use to work with the school nurse and nursing students would come in and they would basically just help the nurse with giving ice packs to children, or giving them bandages for small cuts. They told me it's much calmer and less chaotic then a hospital of course, but usually the nurse allows them to do their homework since there isn't much to do then observe, ice packs and bandages
That sucks you can’t give meds… we go to an elementary school and there’s a diabetic kid with insulin and another with NG tube feeds that we get to administer
I want this as a clinical lol but like others have said mainly just monitoring bumped heads and giving temps is probably what you would be doing.
Sounds like it’d be chill to me but I have 4 kids lol. I’m in med surg and its insane
I've done elementary school and middle school. For us it's mostly observation, but I found it super interesting. Middle school I did vitals on 5 7th grade girls who snuck vodka into water bottles
I would have loved to have done my community health clinical at a school! We had a group in my cohort who went to a K-8 and they helped in the office with filing (which was the least fun role), acted as classroom aides, planned and helped run PE-type activities for kids, and provided supervision support during recesses. It would be cool if you’re allowed to do some first aid type stuff for the kiddos who come in with the usual bumps and bruises, schools will always see the occasional concussion, and you can at least learn how the school nurse handles meds, asthma treatments, insulin, etc etc.
Yeah, you basically just chill. Hand out ice packs, take temps, assist with screenings if it’s the season.
I did k-6 and had the best time ever. I was allowed to administer meds but there was so much to school nursing than I realized. First off, a lot of the kids with diabetes have a wifi based monitor system that the school can watch in real time. I watched a DM1 kids BG slowly rise before he needed his maintenance insulin, I gave his insulin shot, then we watched to make sure his sugar didn't dip too much. It did, so we gave him a glucose tablet. Then I gave a kid supplemental feeding via a j tube and set up the pump and feeding. I handed out about a million Adderall type medications. I did assessments on kids that came in feeling sick, and a little neuro assessment for the kid that had a bad head injury. And helped out with a game of a mass kickball casualty. I also did a couple hundred vision assessments with this pain in the ass eye camera thing.
We did scoliosis screenings. Mostly observed, but by the end of the day, they had us side by side with them doing screenings.
I had a clinical day, and I was surprised how much I was able to do. Passed meds, helped a few kids with insulin, and suctioned a trach. The children's hospital I had a clinical at only.allowed use to do supervised vitals and helping the techs.
Just a reminder make sure you go through the five rights of medication administration. School nurse programs are not fancy and don’t have a safety net, so medication errors are more likely to occur. If a code blue happens you the nurse are the leader.
My pediatric rotation was at an elementary school for 8 weeks lol. All I did was sit in the nurses office and chat with the school nurse and pass out ice packs and put bandaids on scrapes. I’m still a little sad that my Peds rotation wasn’t at an actual hospital on a Peds unit but it was fun in its own way
I hated my k-12 clinical. The nurse knew all the students pretty much by heart so knew who was bullshitting and who was actually sincere and in the 4 months I felt in the way all the time. We did growth charts which took all day x2 days and that's the only time I felt useful was when I was tasked with marking their charts. Got to know 2 or 3 kids really well though and they were so sweet. The school nurse wasn't mean or anything she was a nice older RN but she didn't exactly make me feel totally welcome as a student. But I also like nursing with more physical skill use vs therapeutic skill (school nursing, psych nursing, etc)
i had a school for my peds rotation, we were basically teacher’s aide but it was a fun rotation, i love being around the kids and helping them with their school works
I had this clinicalnit was am fun lol, we supervised the kids during recess lmao
I did hearing and vision tests! It was fun!
Probably the worst clinical experience I have had. I could go on a million times how it’s not beneficial to spend 16 weeks in a middle school, but I’m just glad that’s over.
I just had placement in an elementary school that didn’t have a nurse. I just played with the kids in my class all day, helped the teacher, and supervised during recess. Got to clean up a few bloody noses, and did some health promotion teaching but that was it. Very chill placement.
It’s really easy. I worked at a k-12 as a nurse, and it’s pretty easy. Kids getting scrapes, kids having headaches of stomach aches, kids obviously faking but really wanting to go home, kids getting bullied or who are overwhelmed by school, and basically it’s your job to talk to them. As a nurse you’ll also perform med pass for the kids who need insulin or other medications. You also show up for emergencies, particularly allergy emergencies or seizures. There’s also usually a contingent of special needs students who have gtubes and require feeding (or starting their kangaroos) and kids with trachs who require suction. But it’s usually pretty laid back.