nurse's corner
Hello, from Nurse Gilligan! On this page, you will find all things clinic and health-related. All required forms are available in the FORMS folder.
Health Forms & Emergency Care
- New Students and Rising Kindergarteners: All new students and rising kindergarteners must have a Commonwealth of Virginia School Entrance Health Form submitted before their first day at Saint Luke Catholic School This form includes immunization records and a physical exam that must be dated within 365 days of starting at Saint Luke School.
- Additionally, a Confidential Student Health History Update Form is required for all new students and annually for returning students, even if a student’s health history has not changed from the previous school year.
- Emergency Care Form: An Emergency Care Form must be submitted for each student one time.
IMMUNIZATIONS
- Students will not be permitted admission to Saint Luke Catholic School without documented proof of required immunizations.
- Vaccines must follow CDC recommended dosing schedule and age requirements.
- Religious exemptions possible upon request.
- 7th Grade: Tdap and Meningococcal Meningitis vaccinations are required at the start of the school year for all 7th graders.
- HPV vaccination (two doses) is not required for students but is recommended for the prevention of various types of cancers. Please talk to your child’s doctor for more information.
Medications, ALLERGIES & ASTHMA
- Medications: All medications must be delivered in their original packaging to the school by a parent/guardian, labeled with student name and also with a visible Rx number for prescriptions.
- All medications that were stored in the clinic must be picked up by a parent/guardian at the end of the school year.
- When a medication that is stored in the clinic for your child expires, you will be notified by Nurse Gilligan, and you must pick up the expired medication and replace it with an unexpired version.
- No medications, including OTC medications, are permitted in student lockers or backpacks.
- Anything medication related for for students must go through Nurse Gilligan.
- Medication Authorization Form: For any prescription or over-the-counter medication (except inhalers and EpiPens), please complete a Medication Authorization Form. A licensed health care provider (MD, DO, PA, NP) has to sign the authorization form if the medication is to be given for four or more consecutive days.
- Asthma: If your child has asthma and you will be storing an inhaler in the clinic, please submit the Asthma Action Plan with Inhaler Administration Form.
- Allergies: If your child has a severe food allergy, you must complete and return the Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan to the clinic when bringing epinephrine auto injectors.
- Additional forms, including those related to diabetes, seizures, and students self-carrying epinephrine and asthma inhalers, can be found in the health forms folder.
Absences & Illness
- Please notify both the classroom teacher and the front office by phone or email if your child will be absent from school for any reason.
- If your child is diagnosed with a communicable disease (head lice, chickenpox, HFMD, influenza, COVID, RSV, strep throat, norovirus, etc.) you must notify Nurse Gilligan via email.
- Students with fevers and/or contagious or infectious diseases that are recognized during school hours will be sent home promptly by Nurse Gilligan.
- Once a child is determined to need to go home from school, a parent or guardian must pick up their child from school within a reasonable amount of time to control the spread of illness.
- If a parent or guardian is not available, the student’s emergency contact from PowerSchool will be called.
- Once the student is confirmed to be free of communicable illness by a health care provider or is fever-free for 24 hours without taking any fever-reducing medications, the student may return to school. (This policy also applies to resuming after-school and extracurricular activities.)
- Additionally, children may not return to school if they have vomited in the past 24 hours.
- If your child is diagnosed with strep throat, they must be on antibiotics for 24 hours before returning to school.
- Head Lice: All students identified as having an active case of lice will be excluded from school until they receive treatment (either home treatment or at a lice removal clinic).
- It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to provide appropriate and adequate treatment for the student and home environment as recommended by their health care professional.
- Once your child has been treated for lice, they may return to school, as long as there are no crawling lice. Nits (the eggs of lice) may stay in hair after treatment, but successful treatment will kill crawling lice. Even if you see nits (eggs), your child can still come to school the day after they receive treatment to eliminate the crawling lice.
- Even after treatment, you should continue to use a fine-toothed comb (lice removal comb) to comb through your child’s wet, conditioned hair daily to remove any remaining nits.
- Concussions: Notify Nurse Gilligan and your child’s teacher if your child is diagnosed with a concussion. Submit a doctor’s note to Nurse Gilligan with any required accommodations. More information on concussions can be found here.
- If a child sustains a head injury while at school, you will be notified by Nurse Gilligan of the injury and circumstances surrounding when/how it occurred, including any concerning symptoms and follow-up recommendations.
- For injuries requiring modified activity, please provide a doctor’s note if your child will need to be excused from PE for more than one day. For one single day of sitting out from PE class, a verbal notification or email to Nurse Gilligan from a parent/guardian may suffice.
ADDITIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY NOTES
- TB Testing: All staff and volunteers of Saint Luke Catholic School are required to provide proof of negative TB test results in the past year before coming into the school.
- Hearing and Vision Screening: All Saint Luke Catholic School students in 3rd and 7th grade receive both hearing and vision screenings (with parental consent/signed permission slips) around February annually at school.
- Scoliosis: Please ask your child’s physician to check your child’s spine for signs of scoliosis during their annual physical exam.