BLS Nursing Blog
CONCUSSION CORNER
CONCUSSION REPORTING
Please complete the Concussion/Brain Injury Reporting Form for any reported student concussion/brain injury in your school. *This is a new form to reflect the 23/24 school year. Not only will this help with tracking district wide concussion numbers, but Tami will be reporting these injuries to the Return to School Project. Per Katie Legace, passive consent letters have gone out to all families on August 18th.
HEALTH SERVICES COMMUNICATION
The following information below went out to all school principals on Friday, September 1st.
Our district student support needs have shifted over the summer. We have seen increasing numbers of type 1 diabetes diagnoses along with an increasing number of students with complex medical needs starting school. With these increased needs, I wanted to send out a reminder to schools about how best they can support their student population.
- Health Room Responsibilities
- A (non-nurse) staff person and a backup staff member, (designated by the school administrator) are responsible for the health room duties. This includes medication intake and administration, first aid, students presenting with rashes, supporting ill students, etc. Staff should follow the Communicable Disease Guidance for Schools to help determine if a student should be excluded from school. (Pages 9-10 in the CD guidance specifically address symptoms that are criteria for school exclusion.)
- Administrators, please remind your designated staff about their role in health room management. The school nurse can be notified for an urgent/emergent situation such as: broken bone, breathing difficulty, profuse bleeding, loss of consciousness, etc.
- Student support
- Due to the increased number of students with type 1 diabetes attending sites throughout the district, a (non-nurse) staff person and a backup staff member, (designated by the school administrator) should be identified to support diabetic matters in the absence of a school nurse following the student’s health management plan. The school nurse (or designated substitute nurse) is available by phone for guidance. Nurses will do their best to assist with direct care diabetes support. However, most nurses have more than 1 site they are responsible for and unfortunately cannot be at multiple places at once.
School Nurse Responsibilities: School nurses are responsible for developing, maintaining, and/or updating health management plans for students with chronic illnesses and disabilities (including obtaining health care provider orders for care), staff trainings (health plans general and student specific, delegation and follow up of specific health service tasks, scheduled and emergent medication administration), direct care support, concussion management, care coordination between school teams and community health partners, suicide screening, IEP/504 participation, communicable disease prevention/management, etc.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support!
SAFETY
Culture of Safety Goal
Please review the BLS Culture of Safety document on the Staff Portal. Key safety policies and procedure information are included in the document.
- All staff that are visiting schools or facilities outside of their primary duty location (i.e. attending training at a school other than their own), need to sign in and out with their staff ID badge at the visitor management kiosk in the front of the school during duty hours.
- All staff need to visibly wear their staff ID badges at all times during duty hours.
School Nurse Responsibilities: School nurses are responsible for developing, maintaining, and/or updating health management plans for students with chronic illnesses and disabilities (including obtaining health care provider orders for care), staff trainings (health plans general and student specific, delegation and follow up of specific health service tasks, scheduled and emergent medication administration), direct care support, concussion management, care coordination between school teams and community health partners, suicide screening, IEP/504 participation, communicable disease prevention/management, etc.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support!
Wild Fire Smoke
Indoor Mitigation Strategies
- please keep your doors and windows closed during smoke events. I know this seems simple, but our facilities have lots of doors and windows, so it’s best to walk the building and check. If you have smoke in the building, opening doors and windows will not help the smoke leave the building.
- Let the filters do their job. The filters in our air handlers will filter interior air 4 to 6 times per hour. The units will also pull a small amount of outside air 4-6 times per hour, which is filtered as it enters the building. Please do not shut off the air handler units!
- Use the air scrubbers provided to each school by our Custodial Department (541-355-6601). This added filtration can help in areas that may be smokier than others (ie entryways). If the smoke in the facility appears to be excessive, please call our Maintenance team at 541-355-4700 and they will evaluate the system. They may ask you to shut down the air handler system with the shut-off button at that time.
TRAININGS/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Sexual Abuse training offered by PACE
- Child sexual abuse is a pervasive societal problem that requires ongoing conversations. Learn about child abuse statistics, the grooming process and how to identify a predator in educational settings. Head into the new school year with a baseline understanding of how to prevent sexual abuse and bring your questions! There is a current training planned for Aug. 31 at 12:00 pm. If you are interested, you can sign up HERE. McKenzie Nix is a great resource and she can come to talk to staff or do trainings during the year. Email [email protected].
QPR Training – Mandatory
- If you haven’t taken a QPR training within the last year, please mark your calendars.
- Wednesday, October 25, 2023
- 230-4pm
- Location: TBD
Nurse Trainings – Mandatory
- Please note that these are non-school days for all elementary schools.
- Friday, February 2, 2024
- Thursday, April 11, 2024
- Friday, April 12, 2024.
NURSE MEETINGS
You can find the dates/times of upcoming nurse meetings in the Nursing Schedule 23-24, Google Sheets (select the Nurse Meeting tab).
DAY OFF REQUESTS
- Day off requests – Get your requests in ASAP for any time you wish to take off. (This includes school conference days.)
- Classified Staff – Per HR, no more than 5 unpaid days can be used for personal time (vacation, recreation, etc.) during the school year.
- Certified Staff – Per HR, there is no option for unpaid days for personal use. Certified Staff can only use personal leave.
- Please remember when requesting an extended period of time off for personal time (greater than 5 days), your team is affected by needing to support your assignment.
- Dates not available to request time off*Please do not request time off during these times.
- There will be mandatory nurse meetings/trainings on the following non-school days:
- Friday, February 2, 2024
- Thursday, April 11, 2024
- Friday, April 12, 2024.
- There will be mandatory nurse meetings/trainings on the following non-school days:
BLS NURSE CHECK-IN SURVEY
Having a stressful week? Need some extra support? Suggestions for nurse meeting ideas. Please complete the BLS Nurse Check-In Survey
ALL ABOUT YOU
Please complete the About YOU form.
LINKS
Return to School Project, Concussion/Brain Injury Reporting Form
