A. Job Title: School Nurse

 

B. Department: Superintendent’s Office

 

C. Education Level and Certification:
Graduate of an accredited school of nursing. Must possess an unrestricted license to practice nursing in the State of Nebraska at all times during employment. Must be certified in Basic Life Support or Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. Previous experience in the Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) Program is preferred.

 

D. Reports To: Superintendent or Designee

 

E. Performance Responsibilities and Job Tasks
The National Association of School Nurses Board of Directors has defined school nursing as: “A specialized practice of professional nursing that advances the well-being, academic success, and life-long achievement of students. To that end, school nurses facilitate positive student responses to normal development; promote health and safety; intervene with actual and potential health problems; provide case management services; and actively collaborate with others to build student and family capacity for adaptation, self-management, self-advocacy, and learning.”

Inherent in this definition is the framework that school nurses engage in professional nursing practice, use the nursing process for decision-making, document the care they provide, and assure confidentiality. School nurses address the physical, mental, emotional, and social health of students. In addition, school nurses have as the ultimate outcome of their practice, the support of student success in the learning process. In this context the school nurse provides services to students and children qualifying for early childhood services.

 

The School Nurse is responsible for performing within the scope of that definition, which include the following responsibilities and job tasks:
1. Promote and protect the optimal health status of students.
2. Provide health assessments:
a. Obtain health histories.
b. Screen and evaluate findings of deficit in vision, hearing, scoliosis, growth, etc.
c. Observe for development and health patterns in making nursing assessment.
d. Identify abnormal health findings.
3. Develop and implement student health plans, including individual student health plans and asthma,
anaphylaxis and diabetes self-management plans:
a. Interpret the health status of students to parents and school personnel.
b. Initiate referral to parents, school personnel or community health resources for intervention, remediation and follow-through.
c. Provide ongoing health counseling with students, parents, school personnel or health agencies.
d. Utilize existing health resources to provide appropriate care of students.
4. Maintain, evaluate and interpret cumulative health data to accommodate individual needs of students.
5. Plan and implement school health management protocols.
6. Participate in home visits as needed to assess needs related to a student’s health.
7. Develop procedures and provide for emergency nursing management for injuries/illnesses.
8. Promote and assist in the control of communicable diseases. Responsible to ensure appropriate exclusion from and re-entry into school in accordance with State health guidelines and Board policy and for reporting communicable diseases as required by law. Implement precautions for bloodborne pathogens and other infectious diseases.
9. Provide health education and anticipatory guidance:
a. Provide direct health education and health counseling to assist students and families in making decisions on health and lifestyles that affect health.
b. Participate in health education directly and indirectly for the improvement of health by teaching persons to become more assertive health consumers and to assume greater responsibility for their own health.
c. Counsel with students concerning health problems such as pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and substance abuse in order to facilitate responsible decision-making practices.
d. Serve as a resource person to staff members in health instruction. e. Conduct medication administration training and assessment to permit other employees to administer medication to students.
10. Coordinate school and community health activities and serve as a liaison health professional between the home, school and community.
11. Act as a resource person in promoting health careers.
12. Engage in research and evaluation of school health services to act as a change agent for school health programs.
13. Provide consultation in the formation of health policies, goals and objectives for the school district.
14. Participate in the development of IEPs and 504 assessments and plans for students with disabilities who need school health services as a related service.
15. Ensure compliance with laws related to school health, including school admission requirements such as immunizations, physical evaluations and visual evaluations.
16. Provide care and case management for children with chronic health problems.
17. Monitor security and safe administration of medications.
18. Administer the school health services in conformity with the adopted policies of the Board, state and federal laws and regulations, and all other laws and regulations.
19. Keep current with school health management trends by attending conferences and other professional development activities.
20. Develop and implement school health office forms.
21. Complete, or oversee the completion of, all health-related reports and forms required by the Nebraska Department of Education and other governmental agencies and ensure that such reports and forms are submitted on or before the due date.
22. Maintain directly or through delegation health records that are required by law or by Board policy. Serve as the custodian for school health records.
23. Maintain confidentiality of information concerning staff, students, and parents in accordance with law and District rules.
24. Adhere to the code of ethics of the District for non-certificated staff, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Association of School Nurses. The School Nurse must serve as a positive role model for staff and students.
25. Perform other tasks or duties as assigned by the Board or the Superintendent.

 

F. Working Conditions
1. Inside offices and classrooms.
2. Exposure to diseases or infections.

 

G. FLSA Status:
Exempt under the professional exemption if the School Nurse is an RN. Professional exemption: The employee has a primary duty of performing work requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study or has a primary duty of teaching, tutoring, instructing, or lecturing in the activity of imparting knowledge and is employed and engaged in this activity as a teacher.

 

H. Essential Functions:
The essential functions of the School Nurse position include: (1) regular, dependable attendance on the job; (2) the ability to perform the identified tasks and to possess and utilize the identified knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the identified work activities; and, (3) the ability to perform identified physical requirements.