Notes from Nurse Jen

Welcome back to school Hughston Mustangs! I hope you and your family have had a wonderful and relaxing summer and are ready for the 2022-2023 school year!

I am Nurse Jen and I have been a PISD school nurse for 10 years. Prior to my time at PISD I was a labor and delivery nurse at Parkland Hospital for 16 years. I have 4 children, 1 at Plano Senior High school, and the other 3 are attending 3 different universities. My husband Brett and I are truly going to enjoy college football season this year as we yell WOO PIG, ROLL TIDE, and Gig’Em Aggies! Next year, our last child at home is hoping to attend OU, so we look forward to adding BOOMER SOONER to our cheers as well!

I truly love my job and I truly love caring for your children each school day. I thank you for trusting me to keep them safe and healthy throughout the school days.

I would like to take a moment to review some of the updated guidelines, set forth by PISD, concerning the health and safety of our school. As in years past, the exclusions from school do remain the same and include the following:

·        temperature of 100 degrees or more, students must be fever-free for 24 hours, without medication, before re-entry

·        pain and or swelling at the angle of the jaw

·        undetermined rash over any part of the body

·        undiagnosed scaly patches on the body or scalp

·        nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea, students must be symptom-free for 24 hours , without medication, before re-entry

·        red, draining eyes

·        intense itching with signs and symptoms of secondary infection

·        open, draining lesions

·        jaundice

Please keep in mind it is the responsibility of the parent or guardian to transport your student from school to home. In certain cases, some conditions require a note from the students' physician stating your student is not contagious and able to return to school.

COVID PROTOCOLS

As we enter another school year with COVID ever-present in our daily lives, I am happy to share that the quarantine times have been reduced to more closely reflect the CDC guidelines. COVID protocols this school year are as follows:

·        quarantine has been reduced from a full 10 days to a full 5 days (day “0” is the day symptoms began, or the day of the + COVID test, if symptoms are not present)

·        students may return on day 6, after 5 full days of quarantine

·        PISD will accept a COVID positive @home tests, however a COVID negative @ home test will need to be verified, at a proctored testing location (physician’s office or pharmacy)

Medications

Please ensure that any medication brought to the clinic is transported by an adult. Students are not allowed to transport medication to and from the clinic (including cough drops). Medications need to be in their original containers and not expired. Prescription medications need to include the child’s name, prescription number, and the exact dosing on the label. All medications must be administered according to the dosing indications, either on the prescription label or on the dosing chart.

If your student may need “as needed “ medication throughout the school year, please fell free to bring those medications into the clinic. As needed medications follow the same rules as daily medications, but cannot be administered more than 10 consecutive days in a row, without a doctor’s prescription. Each medication will need a pink medication request form, completed and kept on file in the clinic. Specific conditions such as asthma, severe allergies, seizures, etc will require an action plan from a physician as well. If you have any questions or concerns, in regards to providing the clinic with medications, please do not hesitate to contact me.

SPECIAL DIET ACCOMMODATION FORM

This year the PISD Food and Nutrition Department will require that each child with a mild, moderate, or severe food allergy have a Special Diet Accommodation Form on file, with the FANS Department. This Special Diet Accommodation Form needs to be completed and signed by a parent and their physician. If you have indicated on the parent portal that your student has a food allergy, or a medically-indicated dietary restriction, a form has already been sent home in you student’s folder. Please return this form to the clinic, as soon as possible.

PARENT PORTAL

In order to continue to keep your student safe and healthy during the school day, please make sure to place any medical concerns into the parent portal under Student Health History. This allows me to generate reports of our students with medical conditions, such as severe food allergies, diabetes, history of seizures, etc. Again, please let me know if there are any specific concerns I need to be aware of, to care for your student in the best way possible, during their school day.

EXTRA SET OF CLOTHING

Lastly, each child should have an extra set of clothing, in a Ziploc bag, in their backpack. This is important not only for our younger Hughston Mustangs, but for our older students as well.

The extra clothing bag should include the following:

-extra shirt

-extra bottoms (skirt, leggings, pants, or shorts)

-socks

-underwear

*an extra pair of shoes (if possible)

The clinic has a limited supply of extra clothing. If your child should need to borrow clothing from the clinic, please make every effort to return the clothes, washed and in a timely manner. As the seasons change, please make sure to replace their extra set of clothing to reflect the changes in the weather (ex. replace shorts with pants in the winter).

Thank you for trusting me with your student during the school day. I appreciate your support of our great little school and of the school clinic.

Respectfully,

Nurse Jen