Dear Parents...

[fetch, BSN, RN]

Half of this school goes to see Dr. Blahblah at Gobley-de-Gook clinic. I have received upwards of 20 medication orders from that office in this school year alone - and considering I only have about 50 medications so far, that ain't something to sneeze at!

So I don't know why you are now telling me that the reason your child doesn't have his emergency medications for asthma, anaphylaxis, and seizures is because Dr. Blahblah first needs a fax from me on school letterhead. I can assure you, I have not had to fax Dr. Blahblah for every student. All the other parents have been perfectly capable of getting the doctor's orders and medications in to the school without it.

The fact that you don't know what information is needed, only that it has to be on school letterhead? Not a problem, I can fax the doctor some HIPAA release forms, if you'll be good enough to fill them out and sign them. Don't worry about giving me the fax number - I didn't actually expect you to have it either, despite that being the whole reason you came to the school today.

Gritting my teeth,

Nurse Fetch

PS: I especially appreciate how you brought along the 3 year old sibling and told them "don't touch anything, it's all caca in here."

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

Oh yeah! AND the Docs at Gobley-de-Gook clinic are notorious for signing and returning only a few of these forms a week. Having worked in an MD office at one point, I have seen the response to a pile of fax requests...it gets shoved to the side. Again and again. The big clinic in my area won't fax forms, so they come snail mail.

[Wave Watcher]

I have 425 students. Most of my parents only have 1-2 children in my school. I think the child to parents ratio is much better than the nurse to student ratio and they can handle their own faxing, signing and giving the forms back to me. I'm not going to chase them down and I'm not going to call/fax the doctor every week until I get the forms back. Like it.....or lump it. :-)

Hang in there. Stand your ground.

[SchoolNurseTXstyle]

You said it Wave Warcher!!! I have 1300 students, not enought hours in the day for me to do stuff like that. I canbarely even find time to call the parent of the kid with the 102 temp waiting in the corner.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

It is the parent's responsibility . . . don't budge.

[Rubor]

Parents responsibility for sure! I am on maternity leave and I am afraid that my replacement may be doing too much for these parents ( witnessed). But I agree stand your ground!

[T-Bird78]

I work in allergy/asthma so we deal with the other side of that coin. I tell the parents they need to get the forms from the school, bring/fax to us, we'll fill them out, then call parent when it's ready for them to pick up. No, we can't just "write a note" saying they need medication x PRN, the school requires their own forms for uniformity.

[fetch, BSN, RN]

Well I finally got them faxed to me today - when mom was here with the medication. Still not sure why she couldn't have just picked up the papers herself. DOUBLY unsure as to why she wants her precious babbu to come use the clinic bathroom if she won't even let him wash his hands at my sink - either the one in the clinic, or in the clinic bathroom. (Yeah okay, keep telling yourself the boy's bathroom is cleaner. Whatever.)

[SchoolNurseTXstyle]

HAHHHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAA!!! Boys bathroom clean? I had to go in there one day and I almost threw up and passed out from the urine stench. Cleaner??????? Too funny!

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

HAHHHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAA!!! Boys bathroom clean? I had to go in there one day and I almost threw up and passed out from the urine stench. Cleaner??????? Too funny!

THIS. I walked into the boys' room at my school to hang "Wash your hands" signs and found each toilet full to the brim with urine because apparently flushing the toilet is beyond a HS boy. Gross.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

THIS. I walked into the boys' room at my school to hang "Wash your hands" signs and found each toilet full to the brim with urine because apparently flushing the toilet is beyond a HS boy. Gross.

It's not just HS boys. I'm convinced it's a Y chromosome inherent aversion to flushing toilets Think that's why most Boy Scout camps stick with latrines. no flush needed

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

I read that out loud to my 7th grader and he agreed "When we have to go into the high school boys locker room, the toilets are full of pee and that's gross!".

Ok then . . .why do YOU not flush YOUR pee down the toilet at home? Like father, like son.

That's a whole other subject but as the only person who actually scrubs and cleans the toilet, letting urine ferment in the toilet bowl makes you have to clean it more often. Plus, the smell isn't nice . . . . .