West Virginia
COUNCIL
o f Sc ho o l Nurse s
Jan. 20, 2012
Stonewall Resort
Minutes
I. Call to order by Carol Cipoletti, acting chairperson.
II. Introduction and Welcome
Attendees: Delberta Riffe, RESA 3; Carol Cipoletti, RESA 6; Shelly Kerere, RESA 7;
Milissa Mace, RESA 5; Paula McCoy, RESA 4;; Debbie Stine, RESA 8.
Kristi Skaggs was unable to attend due to illness.
III. Review and approval of minutes of meeting on Nov. 2, 2011. Minutes were
reviewed and motion to approve minutes was made by Delberta Riffe and seconded by
Debbie Stine.
IV. Old Business
Importance of utilizing the HealthCheck as the official screening requirement for public
schools.
Planning for RESA meetings.
Planning days for Becky King to shadow with the council members.
V. New Business
Carol Cipoletti agreed to be chair of the council this year and Paula McCoy will serve as
secretary.
Immunization Codes Nurses from Cabell (Wendy Barker, RN) county have asked for
clarification about how to code immunizations for Pre-K students who have all the
required immunizations for Pre-K, but not the boosters. Nurses were concerned that it
may have an effect on the Pre- K CAS reports. Should it be OK or IC or XX? Status
codes need to be defined. Recommendation, new code "NB" to mean needs boosters
(for kindergarten). Until that new code is valid, use XX to mean additional information
will be needed.
Field trips and students with diabetes. Delegate what you can, however, if parents are
adamant they cannot accompany their student, licensed personnel should do it. The
WVDE legal department has said that it is not prudent for a nurse to leave a school of
students to accompany one student on a field trip. Every other option should be explored,
such as a parent to go along, a volunteer, or substitute nurse. Nurses need to have
reasonable advanced notice to make plans for the students' safety. Some counties require
that a nurse sign-off on the field trip forms. Ideal planning time should be at minimum
of one month.
This is further complicated if the trip is out of state. Additional information is available
on the web site (https://www.ncsbn.org/index.htm).
If delegating or assigning care out of state nurse should be eligible for pay by the
county since she is on-call. That would be up to the nurse and the county to review.
WVCOSN council chair will bring this up at the WVASN meeting later this month.
Referrals from Healthcheck If the health care provider doing the healthcheck indicates
that a referral is needed, that professional should make it. Since the school nurse did not
do the evaluation, it is not the nurse's responsibility. The school nurse should follow-up
with the parent(s) to determine if a referral was made and completed.
Standing orders. Deb Covey, RN from Hancock county sent out an e-mail recently
inquiring if counties have standing orders for stock medications. Discussion followed
about how to delegate use of these and who makes the decision about when to use if
nurse not present. Also, some topical over-the-counter medications could make specific
skin infections worse, i.e. hydrocortisone cream on a fungal rash. Individualized prn
orders recommended, not standing orders to cover the entire population. Research shows
stock meds are not safe because they are usually utilized by unlicensed personnel.
In regard to Epi-Pen it was decided that standing orders for Epi-Pen use for any
student with signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis would be beneficial. Plan to take
before the board of nursing the use of first aid kits and standing orders for Epi-Pen.
Adolescent Immunization Requirements A "Patient Detail Report" can be printed
from WVSIIS. It details students and those who have received Tdap and/or MCV
vaccines. Nurses may be able to ask local providers or the WVSIIS office to generate
this report.
Ideas about getting the information out to the public: local news (newspaper, radio,
TV). Video ads will be available for use by the end of January. They will be on a
website through DHHR. Utilize HOSA and HISTA students to assist to get the
information out to the public.
Other issues:
Public Works (an independent auditor) report is available on the governor's web
site. One area of the report recommends that School Based Health Centers be used to
provide care for students in lieu of school nurses. In the law, the only agency that
schools can contract with for nursing service is the local health department. Presently
only two counties do such contracts. The "Public Works" statement is not supported by
the WVDE and Dr. Marple.
Public Works report also recommended that all students have an evaluation by an
audiologist. This is, however, not reasonable because there are less than 4 audiologists in
the state.
BMI screenings. Karen Northrup, RN of Wood county inquires why we do not
support mass BMI screenings when NASN does so. All nurses in her county do BMI
and A.N .screenings along with scoliosis screenings. Research does not support mass
screening for students. Issue will be discussed again at next council meeting.
Motion to adjourn by Shelly Kerere, seconded by Milissa Mace.
Respectfully submitted by Paula McCoy.