Calling home about meds?

Specialties School

Published

Okay so I have been wondering this for awhile. Am I the person who should call home in regards to a student not having their ADHD medication? The reason why I ask is because I get teachers who tell me to call the parents home because they can tell they aren't on their medication and when I talk to the parents they always ask me what are they doing and will always want to talk to the teacher. I am a part time school nurse and I get in at 9 while school has been going on since 8. It takes up my morning and some parents will not answer or even say yes they did.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I have a son on ADHD medications he also has ASD.

If he is acting up in class, or the teacher is observing a behavior that has them concerned then the teacher needs to be contacting the parents.

At least as a parent that is my reaction.

Unless you have the child's mediation at school and you are able to give a missed dose (which I guessing you don't) I don't understand why the teachers would make you call the parents.

Contacting the parents over behavioral issues should the teacher, assistant principal, principals job

The teacher is in the classroom seeing the behavior.

The teacher should be communicating to the parents

I do have to say this is my guy reaction being a parent.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

If the student has told the teacher, or me, they did not take their medicine I'll call and intro the conversation with, "XYZ is saying he/she did not take their medicine this morning," and leave it at that. If I'm asked about the behavior I'll say I don't know anything about that. Otherwise, for the exact reason you're talking about, I won't call and provide hearsay to the parent. The teacher, who has personal knowledge of the behavior, has to call, or be available to speak with the parent.

I do think it's worth the effort to get the medicine to school, however late, for both the student and the teacher's sake.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

I agree this is a conversation for the teacher.

I don't know how she can possible "know" that the student is not taking his meds. I can think of a dozen non-medication-related reasons why a student may be disinterested, distracted and disruptive, ranging from poor sleep, to not feeling well, to missing breakfast, to a boring lesson, to excitement about an upcoming soccer game, etc. Unless the teacher has some sci-fi medical scanner in her pocket that detects blood levels of drugs, she is making assumptions about the child's behavior that are just as likely to be wrong as to be right, and she is trying to avoid responsibility for those assumptions (just in case they upset the parents) by putting you in the middle.

While she can't know his drug level, she does know how many times he has spoken out of turn, gotten up from his desk, disrupted the work of other students, had to be re-directed, etc. That is what she needs to present to the parents in order to begin a productive conversation about the student's behavior.

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I have made this call when we have a student who we know is not taking their medication regularly, forgetting it. etc. I make the call because I will offer to help them set it up to keep the medication in school and have me administer it each morning. I have no problem making the call if the goal is to set up a system where the child gets what they need each day so they can do their best work in school. I'm not interested in calling because the teacher doesn't feel like dealing with it.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
I have made this call when we have a student who we know is not taking their medication regularly, forgetting it. etc. I make the call because I will offer to help them set it up to keep the medication in school and have me administer it each morning. I have no problem making the call if the goal is to set up a system where the child gets what they need each day so they can do their best work in school. I'm not interested in calling because the teacher doesn't feel like dealing with it.

Aye. I have 9 AM daily medications I give for this reason; so far this year.

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I will make the call if the child says they didn't take their med. I will not make the call for a teacher who thinks that they didn't but the child says they did. I do keep a dose for several children that I will give at the direction of the parent if it was missed at home.

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I will make the call if the child says they didn't take their med. I will not make the call for a teacher who thinks that they didn't but the child says they did. I do keep a dose for several children that I will give at the direction of the parent if it was missed at home.

This I will do but only after calling home to confirm with parent. If the parent doesn't answer the phone I don't give the meds. Teachers try to get me to give the med anyway but NOPE NOPE NOPE!!!

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I make the call if the student states they did not take their morning medication. Like one of the others stated I say "Johnny is telling me he forgot his medicine this morning, anyone available to run up a dose". If the parent starts asking questions about behavior etc, I tell them I will ask the teacher to give them a call later in the day. With this phone call I always let parents know they can leave 2-3 doses with me in case this happens in the future.

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Specializes in School nursing.
I make the call if the student states they did not take their morning medication. Like one of the others stated I say "Johnny is telling me he forgot his medicine this morning, anyone available to run up a dose". If the parent starts asking questions about behavior etc, I tell them I will ask the teacher to give them a call later in the day. With this phone call I always let parents know they can leave 2-3 doses with me in case this happens in the future.

Exactly what I do. If it is becoming a regular thing, I will reach out to the parent and ask them if they would prefer for their child to take the medication at school or if they would like to keep a small back-up supply for the occasional time their child does not take it at home. (With the proper orders, of course!)

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echoing many of the responses, I will call and ask a parent to bring in a medication. Or, more accurately, I will have the student call. If they want more information, I advise them to email the teacher so he/she can call during planning period. I don't think a teacher should interrupt the instruction of an entire class to look for a parent's number, call, maybe leave a message (again, in front of a couple dozen other students), and then explain the behavior in detail.

I also frequently recommend keeping a few doses at the school in case it happens again. But I would never give the medication based on teacher assumption that it was not taken or a student's word. I will talk to the parent and chart that I got the OK from a parent before administering.

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