PROFESSIONAL NURSING CARE

The school nurses, Lynnette Hillman and Debbie Mahon, provide professional nursing care during the school day for all students and staff at SIS. The medical centre is located in the Cervantes Building where the nurses can assess and treat any sickness or physical injury. The school is also supported by an on-call medical service for any emergencies or any sickness outside of school hours.

The nursing service’s main aims are:

• To give confidential advice, care and treatment to young people, their parents and carers.
• To look after and protect the physical and emotional health of the students and ensure that other school members know what students need to be healthy.
• To create an environment that promotes healthy living as well as responding to the needs of individual children.

New students are offered a health check by the nurses as an introduction to the school nursing service. Baseline measurements such as height and weight are taken, immunisation history is checked and any health issues may be discussed.

The school nurses can offer advice on your child´s immunisation schedule. Immunisations are not given at school, but we can advise where to access services.

Individual health care plans are produced for certain children with long term conditions to help coordinate care throughout the school. Training is provided by the school nurses for staff to support children with health care needs such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy or severe allergies.

The school nurses will liaise with parents if their child is taken ill at school. They will advise if referral to other services is needed. They  provide advice on childhood illnesses and the management and control of infectious diseases.

Health promotion is an important part of the school nurse’s role and they work with teachers to provide support to the curriculum in appropriate areas.