Food For Thought
Not-Quite-a-Blog-But-Sort-of-a-Blog
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Here you will find some ideas I have labeled as Food For Thought. The ideas come from here and there, little nuggets I have heard, read or thought about myself. Keeping in mind that in every school nurse setting, though there are many commonalities, each nurse and each setting is unique. As we strive for best practices and respect and appreciation for the roles in which we serve, I hope these nuggets will help you along in your own school nurse journey.
April 15, 2024
Health Room, Clinic or School Nurse's Office
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Some years ago, on the NASN discussion list, I referred to my space in the school as the Health Room. I liked the sound of it because Clinic sounded too much like a place for just the sick and injured and I saw my role as also supporting wellness and health-related self-responsibility. I also wanted to be seen and untilized as a knowledable, educated health resource in the school. School Nurse's Office sounded a bit paperwork-forcused to me at the time, territorial even. Understanding that the image of school nursing was then, as it is now, often misunderstood and under-appreciated, I wanted my personal label to reflect my role as I saw it.
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The then-editor of The Journal of School Nursing responded and had a different take on why we should not use the labels Health Room or Clinic. Here's is my summary of what she said.
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With schools constantly trying the balance budgets, and with many states not requiring school nurses at all, well-meaning but clueless administrators were putting non-nurses in the roles that should be filled by nurses. Parent volunteers and aides with no health care background, school secretaries, even EMT's were being utilized instead. I knew this was true from experience. In a previous district I worked in, as a cost-saving measure, the administrative team was considering cutting all school nurse positions, and replacing us with aides. One principal asserted that is sister-in-law, who was a nursing assistant, could do everything his expensive RN does, for a third of the salary. I was sitting at the table as the representative of the district nurses and realized we had not done a very good job of educating our principals and now we might be fighting for our jobs. We had been focusing on telling our administrators all we DO, but not showing them all they GET by having a nurse in the building. In an upcoming article, I will show you why the difference matters and share some ways to show them all they get. Meanwhile, back to the editor's comment.
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She urged all school nurses to call it The School Nurse's Office, because only a nurse should be in that office in that role, and we should never send the unspoken messsage that because it is a Health Room or a Clinic, that anyone else, whether a volunteer, health aide, a secretary who can read the policy book or even an EMT can or should fill a nursing role.
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Just some food for thought.
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