reflection paper

For my community clinical on 2/17/20 I was able to work with the school nurse at an elementary school. I really enjoyed working with her and learning about the role the school nurse plays in the school as well as the community. Generally, the school nurse is the nurse for the faculty, staff, and especially the students. The school district provides and pays for a nurse at every school in the district to aid the students and the faculty/staff. She can administer medications, provide teaching, and give some advice on medical conditions.. For the most part, the nurse sees students who have minor illnesses and injuries such as scrapes, the flu, stomach aches, headaches, cuts, and sore throats. However the school nurse provides breathing treatments for those who have asthma or asthma exacerbations and can provide treatment for allergic reactions such as with the use of an epinephrine pen. The nurse can also do hearing and vision screenings on children to identify any hearing or vision impairments and refer them to receive further attention . I was able to give two students who were new to the school hearing and vision screenings. While I was there, the nurse showed me how she gave prescribed medications for certain students at the necessary time and charted it an electronic health record. I appreciated how the nurse encouraged the children to memorize what color and shape the pills they took were so that if she wasn’t there one day, the children would be able to know if they were being given the wrong medications by the way their pill looked. 

School nurses also provide teaching about hygiene and personal health to students as well as be an advocate for students of lower income who need assistance. One ethical dilemma I noticed the school nurse face was being an advocate for a child when the parents seemed to neglect the child’s well-being. A child had come in with a toothache and upon assessment it was clear the child had tooth decay most likely from cavities. The nurse had previously contacted the parents about how to properly brush the students teeth and also about seeing a dentist. However, the parents still had not taken the child to see the dentist. The school nurse mentioned to me that if the child had not been seen at the dentist due to the parents neglect after being told on multiple occasions about the issue, she would have to contact Child Protective Services. The nurse explained that neglect of a child’s health condition after plenty of warnings is considered neglect and serious actions could be potentially taken against the parents for the neglect. In this case, it was important for the nurse to intervene and advocate for the patient. Another example of advocating for the child the nurse displayed was when she helped a parent learn about the benefits of Medicaid. A child told the teacher that her parents could not take her to her eye appointments to get glasses because her parents didn’t have a car to use. The teacher then told the nurse about the situation and since the child had Medicaid, the nurse was able to find information about Medicaid providing transport to doctor’s appointments. The nurse contacted the parents of the child and told them about the resources of Medicaid and gave the girl a pamphlet to give her parents about more resources on Medicaid provisions. 

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with the school nurse. I was able to see how the school nurse has a direct effect on the children of the community in many different ways. 

 

Works Cited

Health, C. O. S. (2016, June 1). Role of the School Nurse in Providing School Health Services. Retrieved February 13, 2020, from https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/137/6/e20160852