The lines of communication must be kept open between your office and parents. Parents appreciate transparency with them and want you to communicate all levels of action with their child.

Prior to the school year, the health aide communicates actively with parents. There are multiple medical forms that must be filled out prior to admittance into the new school year. These forms include, medical conditions, medications needed on campus (prescription or over the counter), permission to treat, insurance, and emergency contact information. In preparedness for the school year many calls and emails will be sent to parents requesting this information. Some parents are more diligent than others and thus you will end up building more of a relationship with those parents.

Summer is the time where you will set up meetings with parents to learn more about their child’s conditions, if any. Some medical conditions that are common on campus are seizures or epilepsy, anaphylactic reactions, diabetes, and asthma. These are the conditions where you want to reach out to parents particularly and discuss with them the severity of their child’s condition, and proper protocol during an emergency. This will grant the parent’s comfort that their child will be as safe as possible during an emergency and grant you insight as to how to properly care for the student on campus.  

Further, throughout the school year, the health aide is in constant communication with parents. When a student comes in feeling ill, calling the parents and reporting signs and symptoms is a must. Parents will usually ask further questions as to your recommendations for the the student, whether that be keeping them in school or sending them home. It is ultimately the parent’s decision however, your input, more times than not will be asked. In order to ensure the safety of students on campus, you must always keep parents informed. If a student bumps their knee, head, or any other injury you must report it to the parent. This is to ensure that the student’s issue is reported and can get taken care of properly by a higher level of care.

Building a good rapport with parents is a necessity. This will make the parent, student, health aide relationship more comfortable and allow you to experience less push back by parents.