School Nurse

McDowell County Schools seeks a professional School Nurse to plan, implement, coordinate, and evaluate school health services within the Coordinated School Health Program Model. The school nurse serves as program manager/coordinator, case manager/direct care provider, collaborator/advocate, educator, and counselor for the school district, working within the Student Services Program.

Clinical Setting

This is a permanent, full-time position employed by the LEA (Local Education Agency) in McDowell County Schools. The school nurse works in a non-traditional health care setting, serving the school community including students, staff, and families.

Responsibilities

• Plan, implement, coordinate, and evaluate school health services that maximize in-class time by reducing health-related absenteeism
• Eliminate or minimize health problems that impair learning and promote the highest degree of independent function possible
• Promote student, staff, and community awareness of and participation in health behaviors
• Provide comprehensive nursing assessment, diagnosis, outcomes identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation of care
• Coordinate care, provide health teaching, and promote health through consultation and collaboration
• Identify health-related barriers to learning, including at-risk behaviors and financial, cultural, or economic factors
• Systematically enhance the quality and effectiveness of nursing practice
• Evaluate your own nursing practice in relation to professional practice standards, guidelines, relevant statutes, rules, and regulations
• Interact with and contribute to the professional development of peers and school personnel
• Collaborate with clients, families, school staff, and others in the conduct of school nursing practice
• Integrate ethical provisions in all areas of practice
• Integrate research findings into practice
• Consider factors related to safety, effectiveness, costs, and impact on practice in planning and delivery of school nursing services
• Provide leadership in the professional practice setting and the profession
• Assist in the management of school health services
• Attend 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)

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Understanding and knowledge of community as a system and aggregates as clients
• Pediatric and adolescent nursing
• Public health and community health nursing
• Health counseling and mental health crisis interventions
• Communicable disease
• Applicable laws, regulations, and standards pertaining to school nursing practice, including the 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 concepts of primary health care
• Building student, staff, and family capacity for adaptation, self-management, self-advocacy, and learning
• Development, management, and evaluation of school health programs
• Environmental health within the school community
• Ability to plan, coordinate, and supervise the work of others
• Ability to deal tactfully with others and exercise good judgment in appraising situations
• Ability to make independent and timely nursing decisions and to triage
• Ability to secure the cooperation and respect of students, faculty, and staff
• Ability to elicit needed information and maintain effective working relationships
• Ability to collect data to direct evidence-based practice
• Ability to record accurately services rendered and interpret and explain records, reports, activities, health care plans, accommodations, and medical interventions

Required Qualifications

• Registered Nurse (RN) currently licensed in North Carolina
• At least two years of experience as a nurse in a hospital or health clinic, OR certification by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, OR certification by the National Board for Certification of School Nurses

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) or more advanced nursing education

Schedule

• Permanent position
• 10 months per year
• 37.5 hours per week
• 5 days per week
• Full benefits
• State salary schedule applies