Health Services Department
What a School Nurse does for the Pleasant Valley School District
- Act as the link between health and education to create a culture and climate that promotes student centered learning.
- Provide health care as the District’s only credentialed, licensed, qualified health professionals to students, staff, and parents.
- Use nursing process and assessment skills to make nursing diagnosis based on clinical judgment in all areas including emergency care.
- Interpret medical orders, medical reports, and medical technology.
- Provide a link between home and school, school and the medical community, hospital and school.
- Provide problem solving techniques for complex medical, ethical issues such as safe medication administration by students with diabetes, asthma, and emergency medication carried on their persons.
- Provide communicable disease control including immunizations, referrals, follow-up for students and staff.
- Provide Health and Developmental histories for assessment of increasingly complex medical issues of our students.
- Assess and monitor accommodations for handicapped students including classroom environment, safe lifting and transfer techniques.
- Complete the legal mandates of vision screening, hearing screening, scoliosis screening, the subsequent referrals and follow-up.
- Advocate for child health through medical case management, crisis intervention and triage, seeing that each child is in optimum health to learn.
- Act as risk manager for compliance with legal health mandates, and maintain standard of safe practice throughout the District.
- Train and monitor staff medication administration including daily Insulin and over 200 Rx of controlled substances. Evaluate the possible side effects and interactions of approximately 65 different medications and their impact on student learning and behavior.
- Develop, implement and supervise Specialized Health Care Plans for medically fragile students who may be full inclusion students.
- Orient and supervise staff carrying out health care procedures which may include catheterizations, diabetic monitoring, gastrostomy feedings, and emergency care response procedures. Provide back up care when regular staff are absent.
- Provide education and consultation to students, staff, and parents on health, nutrition, special health care needs of children, accessing health care, self health care, being a health care consumer, domestic violence, and safe school environment.
Students with Chronic Illnesses: Guidance for Families, Schools, and Students
PVSD Wellness Policy