School Nurse

The purpose of this job is to support the promotion of health care and provision of medical assistance to Scholars at IOTA Community Schools.

Responsibilities:

• Act in a professional, respectful, and welcoming manner at all times.

• Create a customer-focused climate and provide quality services and support to school and other stakeholders.

• Comply with applicable district, state, and federal codes, laws, rules, regulations, standards, policies and procedures.

• Enhance 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.

• Provide direction, guidance, training and assistance to employees; troubleshoots and works to resolve problem situations; responds to employee problems/concerns.

• Dispensing approved and/or prescribed medications appropriately to students in line with state and federal guidelines. Maintain appropriate medical records regarding all dispensation of medication.

• Develop and implement 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.

• Ensure 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.

• Provide routine and emergency medical care to students within the prescribed boundaries of training, certification, and applicable policies and procedures.

• Promote and protect the optimal health status of students; work with well children and children with acute chronic illnesses, injuries, handicapping conditions, and developmental disabilities. Work with students to promote wellness.

• Observe 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.

• Assist 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.

• Coordinate referrals to outside health services.

• Participate directly and indirectly in health education for improvement of health by teaching persons to become more assertive health consumers and assume greater responsibility for their own health.

• Provide 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.

• Monitor inventory of equipment and supplies; ensures availability of adequate materials to conduct work activities.

• Participate as health team specialist on the Assessment Team and/or IEP-Team for students with health disabilities.

• Communicate with supervisor, employees, other departments, school officials, school faculty/staff, students, parents, physicians, pharmacists, other medical/nursing professionals, social service agency personnel, health department personnel, community organizations, vendors, the public, state/federal agencies, outside organizations, and other individuals as needed to coordinate work activities, review status of work, exchange information, or resolve problems.

• Communicate through the proper channels to keep supervisor and other appropriate personnel informed of impending problems or events of unusual nature.

• Follow established procedures for ensuring assigned areas are safe.

• Work collaboratively with school staff, students, parents, and other stakeholders.

• Attend work and arrive at work on time.

• Maintain confidentiality.

• Operate a computer and other school office equipment to enter, retrieve, review or modify data.

• Operate a variety of equipment and instruments associated with school health work activities.

• Perform general/clerical tasks, which may include answering telephone calls, typing documents, making copies, sending/receiving faxes, filing documentation, or processing incoming/outgoing mail.

• Perform other duties as assigned.