School Nurse

Responsibilities

• Acts in a professional, respectful, and welcoming manner at all times.
• Creates a customer-focused climate and provides quality services and support to school and other stakeholders.
• Complies with applicable district, state, and federal codes, laws, rules, regulations, standards, policies and procedures.
• Enhances the education process by maximizing the health and well-being of school-aged children and adolescents, with focus on prevention of illness/disability and early detection/correction of health problems.
• Provides direction, guidance, training and assistance to employees; troubleshoots and works to resolve problem situations; responds to employee problems/concerns.
• Dispenses approved and/or prescribed medications appropriately to students.
• Maintains appropriate medical records regarding all dispensation of medication.
• Develops and implements protocols and procedures for responding to student illness and injuries, including special intervention for occurrences of acute illness, severe injury, emotional disturbance, and communicable diseases.
• Recommends modification of school programs to meet the health needs of the general and special populations; and assists in the continual evaluation of program effectiveness.
• Ensures compliance with established school health guidelines, safety and infection control procedures, and all other applicable laws, rules, regulations, standards, practices, policies and procedures; initiates any actions necessary to correct deviations or violations; follows safety procedures, utilizes safety equipment, and monitors work environment to ensure safety of students, employees, and other individuals.
• Provides routine and emergency medical care to students within the prescribed boundaries of training, certification, and applicable policies and procedures.
• Promotes and protects the optimal health status of students; works with well children and children with acute chronic illnesses, injuries, handicapping conditions, and developmental disabilities. Works with students to promote wellness.
• Observes students for developmental and health patterns during routine assessments and provides an initial diagnosis; identifies adverse health findings; interprets the health status of students to parents and school personnel; initiates referrals to parents, school personnel, and community health resources for intervention, remediation, and follow-through.
• Auxiliaries in the control of communicable diseases through audits of immunization records, early detection, surveillance, reporting of contagious diseases to appropriate persons/agencies, and proper disinfection.
• Coordinates referrals to outside health services.
• Promotes and protects the optimal health status of students; works with well children and children with acute chronic illnesses, injuries, handicapping conditions, and developmental disabilities. Works with students to promote wellness.
• Provides ongoing health counseling to students, parents, and school personnel; maintains, evaluates, and interprets cumulative health data to accommodate individual needs of students; participates in home visits to assess the family's needs as related to the child's health; provides direct health education and health counseling to assist students and families in making decisions on health and life styles that affect health.
• Provides instruction or recommendations regarding OSHA, CPR, and other health-related needs.
• Maintains current license as a RN after employment.

Requirements

• High school diploma or GED required.
• Four year degree with coursework emphasis in Nursing preferred; supplemented by three (3) years previous experience and/or training involving nursing, preferably in a school, pediatric, adolescent, or public health environment; or any equivalent combination of education, training, and experience which provides the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities for this job.
• Must possess and maintain licensure as a Registered Nurse (RN) in Tennessee.
• Must possess and maintain valid CPR and First Aid certification.

Skills/Qualifications

• Demonstrate excellent verbal and written communication skills to deal effectively with students, educators, employees, community members, parents, and other stakeholders.
• Ability to utilize a computer and other technology in order to enter and retrieve data.