School Nurse

Wilkes County Schools

School Nurse Job Description

Wilkes County Schools provides a robust variety of state and local benefit offerings that include but are not limited to health insurance, annual leave, sick leave, holiday pay, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, state pension plan, and other ancillary benefits. Benefit eligibility is determined by job status and percentage of employment. In addition, Wilkes County Schools offers a local salary supplement of 5%.

Job Title and Classification

• The school nurse is employed by the LEA, Wilkes County Schools
• The school health program is within the Student Support Services Program
• The school nurse serves all schools in the Wilkes County School System

Primary Purpose

• The professional school nurse is responsible for planning, implementing, coordinating, and evaluating school health services within the context of the Coordinated School Health Program Model
• The school nurse serves in the roles of program manage/coordinator, case manager/direct care provider, collaborator/advocate, educator and counselor for the school district.

 Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

The complex role of the school nurse demands, but is not limited to, and understanding and knowledge of:

• Community, including the community as a system and aggregates as clients
• Pediatric/Adolescent Nursing
• Public Health/Community Health Nursing
• Health counseling, mental health crisis interventions
• Communicable Disease
• Applicable laws, regulations and standards pertaining to school nursing practice (NC Nurse Practice Act, Standards of School Nursing Practice and the Eight components of a Coordinated School Health Program)
• School Health Law
• Special education legislation and services
• Case finding, case management and health advocacy
• Program Management including personnel supervision
• Family theory, assessment and intervention
• Leadership, Networking and collaboration
• Ethnic and cultural sensitivity and competence
• Contemporary health and psychosocial issues that influence children, families and the community
• Health care delivery systems and the concepts of the primary health care
• Building student, staff and family capacity for adaptation, self-management, self-advocacy and learning
• School as a non-traditional health care setting
• Development, management and evaluation of school health programs
• Environmental health within the school community

Skills related to this important role include the ability to:

• Plan, coordinate and supervise the work of others
• Deal tactfully with others and exercise good judgment in appraising situations
• Make independent and timely nursing decisions and to triage
• Secure the cooperation and respect of students, faculty, and staff
• Elicit needed information and maintain effective working relationships
• Collect data to direct evidence based practice
• Record accurately services rendered and interpret and explain records, reports, activities, health care plans, accommodations and medical interventions
• Identify health related barriers to learning (i.e. at risk behaviors, financial, cultural, economical, etc.)

 Duties, Responsibilities and Essential Job Functions

The professional school nurse within WCS is responsible for planning, implementing, coordinating and evaluating school health services that:

• Maximize the quantity of in-class time by reducing the incidence of health related absenteeism
• Eliminate or minimize health problems which impair learning
• Promote the highest degree of independent function possible
• Promote student, staff and community awareness of and participation in health behaviors                                                                                                                                 

The school nurse will provide:

Standards of Care

• Assessment: Collects comprehensive data pertinent to the client’s health or situation
• Diagnosis: Analyzes the assessment data to determine the nursing diagnosis or issues
• Outcomes Identification: Identifies goals
• Planning: Develops a plan, as needed, to obtain goals
• Implementation: Implements plans through coordination of care, health teaching and health promotion and consultation to influence the identified plan, enhance the abilities of others and effect change
• Evaluation: Evaluates progress towards attainment of outcomes

Standards of Professional Performance

• Quality of Practice: Systematically enhances the quality and effectiveness of nursing practice
• Education: Attains knowledge and competency that reflects current school nursing practice
• Professional Practice Evaluation: Evaluates one’s own nursing practice in relation to professional practice standards and guidelines, relevant statutes, rules and regulations
• Collegiality: Interacts with and contributes to the professional development of peers and school personnel as colleagues
• Collaboration: Collaborates with the client, the family, school staff and others in the conduct of school nursing practice
• Ethics: Integrates ethical provisions in all areas of practice
• Research: Integrates research findings into practice
• Resource Utilization: Considers factors related to safety, effectiveness, costs and impact on practice on the planning and delivery of school nursing services
• Leadership: Provides leadership in the professional practice setting and the profession
• Management: Assists in the management of school health services

 Performance and Work Load Standards

• Attend the New School Nurse Orientation and follow up sessions as indicated
• Collect data for the NC DHHS School Health Nursing Survey and Program Summary (End of Year Report)

 Job Qualifications

       Required: 

• Registered Nurse, currently licensed in North Carolina
• Baccalaureate degree in nursing and working toward national school nurse certification with the stipulation that certification be completed within 3 years of hire date