[sims] Students' medical notes

[bladedanny]

Hi all,

 

I've been asked if there is any way to display students medical notes on a per class basis. For example in paper registers we used to have a sheet of paper with a list of students with serious medical conditions and allergies. Now we use SIMS we are wanting something similar.

 

All our students’ medical notes are stored within SIMS and accessible by going into each student individually. Does anyone know of a better way of displaying these? Maybe display them within the register view.

 

I haven't used SIMS for long so I’m not sure where to look.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[GeeHubb]

Hi Dan,

 

I don't think you will be able to do this due to a) user permissions, not sure whether class teacher permissions have access to medical details, and b) confidentiality and the risk of someone inadvertantly displaying the info on IWB whilst taking the register!

 

You can still print the info out in paper form for each tutor group though.

 

Gill

[bladedanny]

Hi Dan,

 

I don't think you will be able to do this due to a) user permissions, not sure whether class teacher permissions have access to medical details, and b) confidentiality and the risk of someone inadvertantly displaying the info on IWB whilst taking the register!

 

You can still print the info out in paper form for each tutor group though.

 

Gill

 

Hi,

 

Class Teachers can views medical notes if going into student details. But I agree with you on the confidential issue.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[GREED]

I spent an age working with the admin staff at the school looking to customize the security to give an adequate solution before we started using the medical notes section. Eventually got a good mix of security and freedom that suited all parties and moved forward.

 

To answer the question I don't think getting them displayed in other forms or other areas of the database are a good plan (reasons mentioned already), this potentially being more confidential than anything else in the database.

[bladedanny]

Hi All,

 

I agree with the confidentiality issue. I'll explain further. What we are looking for doesn't have to be full medical notes or even pull through from that section. We are after some sort of note function that can attach to a student (similar to the comment function on a register mark) that Office staff could add that simply says 'Nut allergy' etc.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[GREED]

User Defined Fields, I did EXACTLY that.

 

Also remember there is that customisable tick box field just under medical notes, I think it is called allergies (specifically for thsi purpose).

[bladedanny]

User Defined Fields, I did EXACTLY that.

 

Also remember there is that customisable tick box field just under medical notes, I think it is called allergies (specifically for thsi purpose).

 

Am I correct in thinking this would still only appear on the student details page, rather than within register view?

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

[GREED]

Am I correct in thinking this would still only appear on the student details page, rather than within register view?

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

 

You have some freedom about where you can place the fields, but I am not aware you can (yet) put them with registers.

[GeeHubb]

Hi,

 

Class Teachers can views medical notes if going into student details. But I agree with you on the confidential issue.

 

Thanks,

 

Dan

 

Thanks guys - I don't have any classteachers on the system (lucky me did you say?) so I wasn't certain on that one. As GREED says you can enter allergies into the 'dietary needs' tick box which is customisable and held in Panel 7 - Medical, but the confidentiality issues still apply.

 

Gill

[GREED]

Thanks for the reminder Gill

[bladedanny]

Thanks guys,

 

I was hopefully trying to get it to display as a field on the register (as you can with DOB and behaviour etc.) I'll have a play around and go with the best I can come up with.

 

Thanks again,

 

Dan

[vikpaw]

there are a number of Change Requests on SupportNet for putting medical info as part of the additional info on the registers. Not all of it, but some kind of flag would be nice.

 

i agree with geehubb and greed about the data protection issues, but there are lots of things that are like that, even behaviour, SEN etc. but this has got to be a training issue otherwise we wont be allowed to supply our staff with info they need. Most projectors have a blank / freeze button, and if the data is a hidden column or just a flag before further info comes up, that should be good. Some systems (i know bromcom do this), have a pop up that warns you to freeze the projector just before you show sensitive info, and you can block the pop up for the rest of the session if need be.

 

- adding extra tick boxes and UDFs are good workarounds, but painful really.

 

I hate the way notes work, because they can come from so many different origins that reporting on them is a real pain.

 

I have a report that prints the Class Medical Conditions list, so each form tutor can have a one page reference on any conditions in class - hard copies are so bad as out of date all the time, so i tell people to just run them as needed albeit a slower way around. Anyway, that report looks nice, but if you try to show notes too, they don't link with the condition they may have been added for, and notes that are for other events also seem to pull through and you get all the issues with duplicates coming through. I think i could fiddle around with it using subqueries, but it's just a pain.

 

We've decided to settle on just having the class conditions list, and any issues like the allergies etc. are all listed down as conditions. the report then just pulls in description of the condition and the date info received. It goes into an RTF report.

[GREED]

I agree with Vik, while not a completely paperless solution, a list per class for medical conditions will be a good plan of action.

[vikpaw]

Just an addition thought that i've started forming recently and has been mentioned on some threads in SupportNet in response to other issues.

If you are going to go down the route of custom fields, it's worth making this data an aspect, that can then be put on a marksheet. It doesn't show in the relevant section, however is a lot more manageable.

 

All similar data like this can be placed on a single marksheet and then made available to teachers from lesson monitor via the tabs. It's not applicable to all situations, but is a good way to quickly show info, other examples were things that you might normally record on a paper register as notes, like bringing in trip money, mufti day money, needing to bring a note in. some could be read only, others markable with true/false aspect.

 

Note, it's just an idea i've had to use for some things and have been thinking about more broadly to see if it fits other uses.

[GREED]

If only you could use aspects as fields in the main database (as in appear on the student record screen).

[neilenormal]

What about using the Quick note field that already exists - lots of schools use this for example with a simple M to mean "monitoring" or could be used as you have asked re medical condition/note. On training we put "hamster died" when we demonstrate the field in training!!

[vikpaw]

What about using the Quick note field that already exists - lots of schools use this for example with a simple M to mean "monitoring" or could be used as you have asked re medical condition/note. On training we put "hamster died" when we demonstrate the field in training!!

 

That's okay, but then you have to be in student details and then you're only 1 hot link click away from the full medical record. the problem is to make it more accessible in a full class list format, and ideally linked to the student.

 

I hate to say it again, but on the bromcom system, it cached or pulled up student info on a right click into a pop up window, and this gave you the summary required. It's still not a list, but easier than having to change your whole view to a different page, that also can take a while to load. The info needs to be available first hand, like a highlight on a paper register. Or teachers need to be able to add their own emphasis on students so it comes up like behaviour. Hopefully as they added the behaviour today and other useful info, they will add in the medical notes, which is really important too. For example, we have many many students with severe allergies, to food, dust, the sun(!) and all staff should know immediately that there is a cause for concern, not have to run a report or check each students file manually.

[GeeHubb]

All similar data like this can be placed on a single marksheet and then made available to teachers from lesson monitor via the tabs. It's not applicable to all situations, but is a good way to quickly show info, other examples were things that you might normally record on a paper register as notes, like bringing in trip money, mufti day money, needing to bring a note in. some could be read only, others markable with true/false aspect.

 

Vik, I soooo like this idea! I have done an AM training course, but it's something I would really like to look into (at the moment my school doesn't use Assessment Manager other than for End of Key Stage recording). The problem I have is finding the time to do it! Life in a Primary School is never dull; the phone never stops ringing, there's always someone at the front door and someone else being sick!

 

We've had a couple allergic to the sun as well, I also used to have a child allergic to Christmas trees which I thought was quite a good one.

[vikpaw]

Vik, I soooo like this idea! I have done an AM training course, but it's something I would really like to look into (at the moment my school doesn't use Assessment Manager other than for End of Key Stage recording). The problem I have is finding the time to do it! Life in a Primary School is never dull; the phone never stops ringing, there's always someone at the front door and someone else being sick!

 

We've had a couple allergic to the sun as well, I also used to have a child allergic to Christmas trees which I thought was quite a good one.

 

I know primary can be v.hard, with very little time. AM7 is very powerful, but can take a while to setup correctly. It's good to do things in stages, there are a number of very useful threads on here with advice. If you can't find them get in touch, or do so anyway if you want and help. Setting up this important info marksheet would be a good way to give staff something useful, that will encourage them to use the system, rather than imposing something like recording grades that over time they will just come to hate.

 

One good use i've made in primary section is the recording of Group Reading Tests, it took a little bit to set up, but now works really well, autocalculating reading ages and standardised scores and things. The benefit to us is that we don't update the tests each year, which would impose a little maintenance on whoever sets it up.