Constant Clinic Visits

sls4083 · Mar 23, 2005

At the beginning of every school year I place this article (on colored paper) in every teacher's mailbox.

http://www.homestead.com/snp/10.html

Ten Things Teachers Can Do To Create Healthy Classrooms written by Gerri Harvey. Incredible article.

Also, this is another good one...

http://www.homestead.com/snp/FrequentFlyers.html

Dealing With Frequent Fliers

Hope this helps,

Sue

GreenWitch · Mar 31, 2005

Just wondering how you deal with teacher's who abuse the clinic. There is one teacher who will send me practically every student in her class each day. For the most part, the student's are not ill or injured. As the old term goes....Malingerers ! I have asked the teacher to watch who she sends to me and why she is sending them, but to no avail. The students are playing her like a fiddle and she goes along with it. What should I do. I hesitate to go to administrators because I don't want to seem uncaring, yet it takes of my time to process these kids who I can find nothing wrong with.
Any help would be appreciated.
LPN 90

At first, I avoided going to the administrators for the same reason you mentioned. But after about 3 months into the year I had had it and went anyway! I send out a letter to the parents and teachers. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has two publications I included with these letters, one is entitled: Ten Reasons to Send a Child to the School Nurse and the other is: When to Keep Your Child Home from School.

Basically the letter to the parents said that the clinic runs on a first come first serve basis, the parents of frequent flyers will be notified, the clinic runs on donations, medication policy overview, reminding parents to make sure their child dresses appropriate for the weather...etc...

I had to address these issues because I had parents calling me and cussing me out because their child tried to see me and I had to turn them away, parents were calling to cuss me out for not providing their child with medication. Parents were (and still are) sending their children to school in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops in Jan. Parents were sending their children to school with Lortab....

The letter to the teachers just says that the clinic runs on a first come first serve basis and asks them to please be selective to who they send me. I also told them that I was not allowed to just hand out any medication to any child who walks through the door (the parent has to bring it and fill out a form). A child who is bored and picking off scabs to get out of class, for example, is not a wise use of the clinic.

I sent this letter out because I had several teachers "corner" me and "fuss" at me about having to send children back and not giving kids medication. I've even had teachers dispensing meds to students!

I see roughly 100 students a day and I do the best I can. I don't think it's too much trouble to ask the teachers and parents to do their part. They KNOW the students, they know who is sick and who is faking. Most of the kids the teachers send me are "troublemakers" and they just want to get them out of the class so they can teach...but then they come to the clinic and are disruptive in there when I am trying to draw up insulin, give shots...etc...

I have many parents who can't afford to take their children to the Dr and send them to me to get a diagnosis! I still have not figured out what to do about this problem. I'm not a Dr...I can't diagnose....

Anyway, this is really long! I hope it helps you.