support/help needed

Specialties School

Published

I'll keep this short and sweet. Yesterday was field day here.... 400+ students running around. Kid comes to see me ~ 10 or so, fell, hurt his arm. Did assessment etc, gave ice, monitered, for around 15 mins, off he went. Never saw him again. This morning, I get wind that he has a broken wrist. Turns out he used a teacher's cell phone to call mom, and she took him to the doc. Mom was here this AM, I spoke with her, explained what happened....... she said it was "visibly broken" when she picked him up. Apparently mom also reamed principal, who in turn reamed me. I feel VERY INADEQUATE............ and i want to cry, go home jump under the covers and never come out. How could I have missed that??????? Mom also wants an incident report, which I will write today......... i am very displeased with myself. :crying2:

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Specializes in Peds, School Nurse, clinical instructor.

How could you have missed that??? 400 or so students running around at field days, that's how.

Cut yourself some slack, we have ALL at one time or another missed something. You did all of the appropriate things...swelling, and discoloration may not appear right away so while it may have been "obvious" by the time Mom got there, it was not obvious during the initial assessment.

Any time a student gets injured here, I always contact the parent....it is just a CYA thing and doesn't take much time to do...just a thought for next time.

As for your Principal...you need to give him/her a big thanks for being so supportive.

Take a breath and move on..you are a GREAT NURSE :)

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Thank you!!!! I need to be more vigilent about cya...... my sis is always telling me this! ( i know it is my weakest area) as a follow up, right after this happened, another student got hurt. said she broke her foot. sobbing in pain....... everyone thinks she faking, cept me. i have her call mom for pick up. yup, its broken.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

Shame on you for not having your x-ray specs on!!

I've run into that a few times when a student has jammed a finger playing PE football or whatever, I ice, check for + CSMT and deformity then tell student to return after 20 minutes of icing if still bothering them for a recheck. I've had a few that either didn't return, so my assumption is it improved after icing or leave my office and immediately call a parent because they don't want to wait the 20 minutes:icon_roll. (mind you, these kids are usually the class skippers and complainers)

Teacher should not have let him use the phone- should have instead sent him back for a recheck. I am positive if he returned and the swelling had set in to make it look "visibly broken" you would have made the call right away. Don't beat yourself up.

By the way, I've gotten into the habit of using a tuning fork on the questionable bumps to help me make up my mind over how serious the injury may be.

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