Nurse

At Mill Ford School we have a full-time qualified Nurse - Currently a vacancy, who is on duty throughout the school day. Any day-to-day treatment or nursing care is carried out by school staff under the guidance of the school nurse or by the nurse herself, as is any need for basic first aid. Parents are informed if their child has received any medical treatment. If a child needs to receive any medication during the school day parents must give the school written permission to do so. The school nurse is responsible for medicines; although staff are trained to administer medicines and undertake medical procedures where this is necessary. All participating staff receive competence based training from our school nursing team to ensure high quality practice is adhered to at all times. If a child receives regular medication or emergency medication (such as anti convulsants) then the child must have a health care plan which is reviewed at least annually.

The School doctor conducts a weekly clinic and parents are welcome to contact the school if they have any medical concerns, which our school nurse and/or doctor will endeavour to support with. The school nurse contacts parents if their child is due to have a medical check so that they may attend the appointments if they chose.

Our School nurse maintains close liaison with medical and nursing staff within the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, General Practitioners and Primary Health Care teams. Other visiting specialists include an Orthoptist (vision), Audiometrician (hearing) and a Dentist. Our school nurse receives supervision and support from the Community Children’s Nursing team to ensure that our practices are compliant with those practiced by other health care professionals.

Parents or Carers are encouraged to discuss any aspect of their child’s health or care with our nursing staff so that we can offer the highest quality care for all our pupils. Equally if a child becomes ill in school we will contact parents and there are times when a child must be sent home in order to prevent cross contamination. All parents are required to leave emergency contact numbers should their child be taken ill. If a child should become so unwell they need to be taken to hospital we will make every effort to contact parents/carers and a member of staff will accompany the child to hospital and endeavour to stay with them until a their parents arrive.

Parents are requested not to send their child into school if they are too unwell to learn. When a child is ill we request that parents contact the school in the morning before 9am to inform us that their child will not be in school that day. If a child has had sickness and/or diarrhoea they must not return to the school until they have been clear of any symptoms for 48 hours. If a child is on any short term medication e.g. antibiotics then we request that they don’t attend school for the first 24 hours to enable the medication to start to work but after this they are able to attend school as long as they are well enough to learn and the School has written information regarding the medication and permission if the school needs to administer any medication.