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School Nurse

TITLE: School Nurse

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education/Certification:

  1. Current State of Maine license as a Registered Professional Nurse.

  2. Maine Department of Education certification as a School Nurse (524) or meets eligibility requirements.

  3. Minimum of Baccalaureate degree completed from an accredited college or university.

  4. Hold a valid state of Maine Criminal History Record Check (CHRC) approval.

Special Knowledge/Skills:

  1. Minimum of three (3) years experience as a professional registered nurse.

  2. Background in counseling or counseling skills, desirable.

  3. Ability to collaborate effectively.

  4. Ability to communicate and interact successfully with students, staff, and community members.

  5. A commitment to professional growth and reflective practice.

REPORTS TO: Building Administrator

SUPERVISES: Education Technician(s), Administrative Assistant(s), and/or Volunteer(s) as assigned or appropriate.

JOB GOALS:

To strengthen and facilitate the educational process by improving and protecting the health status of children and adolescents. The major focus of school nursing services is the prevention of illness and disability, and the early detection and correction of health problems and the successful health maintenance and inclusion of students with chronic health conditions. The school nurse is uniquely qualified in preventative health, health assessment, and referral procedures.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Essential Functions:

  1. Provides health assessments

      1. Obtains a health and developmental history

      2. Screens and evaluates findings for deficits in vision, hearing, growth, etc.

      3. Observes the child for development and health patterns in making a nursing assessment and nursing diagnosis.

      4. Identifies health findings which do not fall within the normal range.

  2. Develops and implements health plans

    1. Develops a nursing care plan for every student with special health care needs requiring nursing assessment, intervention, or supervision.

    2. Ensures that the student and their family are involved in all decision-making related to provision of health care in school.

    3. Ensures that the necessary and appropriate resources are available to all persons who are responsible for providing school health care before a child is placed in a classroom.

    4. Interprets the health status of pupils to school personnel.

    5. Initiates referrals to parents, school personnel, and community health resources for intervention, remediation, and follow through.

    6. Provides ongoing health information to pupils, parents, school personnel, and health agencies.

    7. Recommends and helps to implement modifications of school programs to meet students’ health needs.

    8. Utilizes existing health resources to provide appropriate care of pupils.

  3. Maintains, evaluates, and interprets cumulative data to accommodate individual needs of students.

  4. Participates as the health specialist on the child education evaluation team to develop the health portion (I.H.P.) of individualized educational plans (IEP) and 504 plans.

  5. Plans and implements school health management protocols for the child with chronic health problems, including the administration of medication.

  6. Participates in home visits to assess the family’s needs as related to the child’s health.

  7. Develops procedures and provides for crises intervention for acute illness, injury, and emotional disturbances.

  8. Promotes and assists in the control of communicable diseases through preventative immunization programs, early detection, surveillance and reporting of contagious diseases.

  9. Recommends provisions for a healthy school environment conducive to learning.

  10. Provides information on health.

    1. Provides health information to assist students and families in making health-related decisions.

    2. Participates 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.

    3. Provides information to adolescents concerning health problems in order to encourage responsible decision-making practices.

    4. Serves as a resource person to the classroom teacher and administrator in health instruction and as a member of the health curriculum development committees.

  11. Coordinates school and community health activities and serves as a liaison person between the home, school, and community.

  12. Acts as a resource person in promoting health careers.

  13. Engages in research and evaluation of school health services to act as a change agent for school health programs and school nursing practices.

  14. Assist in the formation of health policies, goals, and objectives for the school district.

  15. Provide episodic care for student and staff acute illness and injury and emotional disturbances.

  16. Provides consultation and participates in school and district wellness activities.

Administration:

  1. Ensures that cumulative health records are maintained and updated.

  2. Helps develop/revise school health policies, procedures, and standing orders.

  3. Prepares the budget for school health supplies/services.

  4. Reviews, revises, and implements emergency policies, including in-service health and safety programs for personnel.

  5. Prepares and organizes distribution of first aid kits for each building.

  6. Organizes, instructs, and supervises school health volunteers or assistants.

  7. Reports regularly in writing to the principal and superintendent on school health activities.

  8. Ensures preparation of statistical reports for the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention for the superintendent’s signature as required.

  9. Implements the school medication policy and procedure.

Coordination:

  1. Interprets school health services to school personnel.

  2. Plans, implements, and supervises school health screening programs in accordance with state and district requirements and recommendations. Provides follow-up services when indicated.

  3. Supports students and parents with diagnoses and treatments.

  4. Serves as a health liaison between school, home, and community resources.

  5. Encourages parents to maintain current immunization protection as recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services.

  6. Participates in the health aspects of kindergarten pre registration and screening.

  7. Helps school personnel recognize departures from appropriate behavior and growth patterns; helps students and staff adjust student programs when necessary to accommodate health needs of students.

  8. Serves as a resource person to school personnel. Participates selectively in classroom instruction under the supervision of the teacher.

  1. Maintains confidentiality about all aspects of student performance and written and oral records.

  2. Demonstrates a respect for the legal and human rights of students.

  3. Follows health and safety procedures established by the District.

  4. Arrives and departs punctually, notifying appropriate personnel about absences and coverage.

  5. Demonstrates dependability, integrity, and other ethical standards.

Role in delegation, coordination, and oversight of health related tasks to unlicensed personnel:

  1. Identify the student’s needs and develop/consult on the plan of care.

  2. Identify the tasks to be performed by the unlicensed personnel.

  3. Provide direction/training to the unlicensed personnel.

  4. Ensure that the necessary and appropriate resources are available to all persons who are responsible for providing school health care before a child is placed in a classroom.

  5. Determine the ability of the unlicensed staff to perform the task.

  6. Monitor the designated staff’s reporting and documentation of the task.

  7. Ensure that designated staff reports directly to the certified school nurse for the performance of the task.

  8. Evaluate the performance of the task as it relates to the student outcome and initiate corrective action as appropriate within the school setting.

TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT:

Applicable terms of the Cape Elizabeth Education Association agreement.

EVALUATION:  

Performance of this job will be evaluated in accordance with provisions of the Board’s policy and/or Board action on Evaluation of Professional Personnel.

The Cape Elizabeth School Department expects that all employees will perform assigned duties diligently, professionally, and efficiently and in compliance with all district policies and procedures as well as all federal and state laws.

NOTE: 

The above job description reflects the general requirements necessary to describe the principal functions or responsibilities of the job identified and shall not be interpreted as a detailed description of all work requirements that may be inherent in the job, either at present or in the future.

 

School Board Approved:  June 11, 2013

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