By Paul Binsfeld, president and founder of Company Nurse, LLC
School districts are no strangers to workplace injuries.
In the past year, we’ve triaged tens of thousands of injury incidents for school district employees. From teachers standing on (and falling off) rolling chairs to custodians slipping on wet floors, accidents will happen.
Luckily, most of these injuries aren’t serious. In fact, only 3% of these injuries triaged by Company Nurse were referred to the ER, while 54% of injured workers went to non-emergency facilities. 43% of workers were treated simply with self-care advice. Advice that many injured workers would have otherwise had to make a trip to an urgent care or ER to get.
When an employee in one of your school districts sustains an injury, access to a triage nurse ensures they’re directed to the right level of care and that you’re informed of this injury. This helps your staff get back to work quickly and safely, saving your schools both time and money.
You probably already know this. You may even already have nurse triage for school districts in place. But let’s face it, between classes, grading, and after-school programs, these employees don’t have time to learn a new process. Or at least they don’t think they do.
With a simple plan for utilization, you can get your school districts’ employees embracing nurse triage. Here’s how:
Simplify the Training
While nurse triage programs streamline the workplace injury process for workers, it may seem that your employees don’t have time to learn a new process.
Busy days don’t appear to allow for yet another training or webinar. So, by offering your employees a quick and simple way to learn the nurse triage process, they only need to set aside a few minutes to save themselves countless hours in the long run.
At Company Nurse, we offer short training videos (only minutes long) that not only show your school districts’ employees how the nurse triage process works but why it’s a benefit to them when they get injured on the job.
Provide Guidance During the Process
When an accident happens, your trained employees should know exactly what to do: contact Company Nurse.
Still, injured employees can, understandably, panic after an accident. A startled, injured employee might forget what to do or the number to call.
By providing guidance with Company-Nurse-created educational materials, injured employees won’t have to worry about how they’ll get in touch with a triage nurse—they’ll have all the information available!
Employees will feel confident in a process they can easily refer to in order to get the care they need.
What’s in it For Them
Yes, while the proper training and guidance help encourage employees to use nurse triage, they will, of course, be more likely to call if they find nurse triage beneficial for themselves.
First off, by simply providing your employees with nurse triage will make them feel valued. Giving employees a way to get back to work after an accident easily and safely lets them know you need them working. That you not only care about your employees, but you see each of them as a vital part of your school districts.
24/7/365 access to a medical professional means that employees can get the care they need immediately after a workplace injury occurs. This direct access helps employees get back to work faster (maybe even immediately with self-care). And, as you know, employees who feel valued want to get back to work.
When injuries are reported, all stakeholders in your school districts will be immediately informed. This means the people who can improve the safety of your workplaces can put in place preventative measures to avoid certain injuries from happening again.
In addition, reporting their injuries to a triage nurse means employees have a simple way to make sure everyone who needs to know about their injuries does know. They don’t have to worry about putting these injuries on record. They’re covered and confident.
—
Your employees already have a lot on their hands. But with a simple process that is easy and beneficial to utilize, your employees get the care they need, and your school districts get the workers’ comp results they want.
Want to learn how nurse triage can help your school districts? Let’s get in touch: https://www.companynurse.com/contact/