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I just received a note from a teacher asking me to please disinfect her student's face and clothes because he was just sneezed on.

Ummm, OK.

I just had to share, because I've receieved some odd request, but this was pretty odd to me.

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

I don't ban kids from the building. We love having them visit. I know lice can't jump. I also know the DPH, if in a snarky mood, can and would cite us for one lousy louse.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.
Did you have to send home a letter because you have a lot of cases? I have about 15 in my elementary of 425 and I have parents threatening to call board of health and the state board of education if I "don't do something about it."

You know -for some reason it will hit my school like fireworks - a case in this classroom, check the class, no one else has it, a case in a different classroom at around the same time, different grade - not a playmate or sibling, check classroom and again no one has it in the class - i'll get a couple of hits like that in a school year and it will send the school into panic mode.

2 weeks ago I had a family that had it that prompted several classrooms of checks and my school wide letter being sent out and I had a few children tell me that they got treated - children that I had checked just days earlier. When I called their parents to follow up as to what they found to prompt the treatment (because the parents NEVER call me- I always have to take the word of a seven year old) it often ends up sounding like these poor kids had their heads doused in pediculicide for a case of dry scalp and dandruff. I guess i should just be happy that it wasn't malathion that they were using...

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You know -for some reason it will hit my school like fireworks - a case in this classroom, check the class, no one else has it, a case in a different classroom at around the same time, different grade - not a playmate or sibling, check classroom and again no one has it in the class - i'll get a couple of hits like that in a school year and it will send the school into panic mode.

2 weeks ago I had a family that had it that prompted several classrooms of checks and my school wide letter being sent out and I had a few children tell me that they got treated - children that I had checked just days earlier. When I called their parents to follow up as to what they found to prompt the treatment (because the parents NEVER call me- I always have to take the word of a seven year old) it often ends up sounding like these poor kids had their heads doused in pediculicide for a case of dry scalp and dandruff. I guess i should just be happy that it wasn't malathion that they were using...

I have one student who has dandruff and itchy scalp, and she LOVES to tell her teacher (who is a bit of an over-reacter) that her mom told her she has lice. I have checked this girl ten times this year and never found a single nit. I really hope her mom isn't using RID every time this poor girl has some dandruff.

On the other hand, maybe she does keep getting it! And this woman should open up one of those lice companies, she'd make a killing.

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Specializes in School Nursing, Public Health Nurse.
I have one student who has dandruff and itchy scalp, and she LOVES to tell her teacher (who is a bit of an over-reacter) that her mom told her she has lice. I have checked this girl ten times this year and never found a single nit. I really hope her mom isn't using RID every time this poor girl has some dandruff.

On the other hand, maybe she does keep getting it! And this woman should open up one of those lice companies, she'd make a killing.

Speaking of those companies I just found out that there's a lice business in the big city 2 hours from here. A parent took her daughter after I told her I found nits. The company charges $99 for just their oils/shampoo and nit removal. They charge $199 to use the oils/shampoo and this heat/vaccum machine thingie that makes nit removal much easier. She left me the card. I also found out that there's this salon that only deals with lice and nit removal that's about over an hour away. But I know a lot of my kids won't be able to afford that or even the drive out there.

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I have one student who has dandruff and itchy scalp, and she LOVES to tell her teacher (who is a bit of an over-reacter) that her mom told her she has lice. I have checked this girl ten times this year and never found a single nit. I really hope her mom isn't using RID every time this poor girl has some dandruff.

.

I had a teacher ask me to do a head check a few weeks ago. I think I mentioned that I don't normally do this. But, I checked him because his itchy head was a distraction in class . . . supposedly. Well, I checked him and he had a bad case of dandruff. No lice, no nits. So, I got him a bottle of dandruff/itchy scalp shampoo and sent it home with him. I've dealt with this family before and knew mom would not do anything.

He has since told me he appreciates what I did and his scalp is better.

Sometimes I just have to do something "unprofessional". ;)

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

I'm not a school nurse. I'm now a retired RN, due to sudden unexpected disability. The mom next door is absolutely delightful, but ill equipped for life in this country. She is an accomplished artist and a kind gentle soul who was educated by tutors at home, and was thrust into an arranged marriage to a man old enough to be her father. They met for the first time at the wedding! Her husband teaches with my husband and is a polite, very nice, man with impeccable manners who expects that I will look down when addressing him since I am a mere woman. (NO chance!) They are great neighbors and we have been thrust into the role of translators, culture navigators, sometime babysitters, etc.

Friday, the boys each were given a form to "check for lice" form and neither knew what a "leese" was, so I was called in to assist. :woot:

Happy to report that no "leeses" were found! I should never have shown her the nit and "leese" pictures on the internet. She had me check the kids again today and nothing. I hope the school district quits panicking soon.

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Specializes in kids.

At leeest you were kind enough to try and reassure her!!!:roflmao:

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Specializes in Community Health/School Nursing.
At leeest you were kind enough to try and reassure her!!!:roflmao:

Well that was a "lousey". Bada-boom! I'm here all night! Or until my Tylenol PM kicks in and I start talking crazy on the threads. In that case, someone cut me off!

Off topic: I was just now looking and wondering where the "like" button went and at the same time was trying to figure out what the heck the blue smiley face was. Good thing I work at an elementary school and know about Common Core because I was able to calculate 2+2=5 (little Common Core jokey) and blue smiley=like button.

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TGIF indeed. Here's my long story.

Yesterday I got a call from the elementary school principal in a panic because our local LTC facility had called to deny the 3rd Kindergarten class entry into the facility. A parent, who works there, said there was an "epidemic" of lice in the school. Fortunately my 2nd job is with our local hospital (which included the LTC) and I know the infection control nurse. So I called and said "Seriously? Lice can't jump or fly! Plus, there is NO epidemic". What has been happening is a that woman who spread the story is the mom of 3 kids who had head lice a few weeks ago. She treated on Friday and they went back to school on Monday and came home with live lice. She blamed that on the other kids at school - yeah, all 3 of her kids found another kid or kids who had head lice and sat next to them and lice jumped from one kid to another. Hey mom, maybe you missed some nits and they hatched. Sigh . . . .I got all the current scientific info, all the answers to the myths about lice, all the treatment options including the new one Sklice, a prescription and sent it to her weeks ago. The IC nurse thanked me and called the principal back and the kids got to go.

Then I went to our other elementary school and a Kindergarten teacher asked me to look at a kid who had been treated for lice but was scratching his head. I usually don't do this but this teacher is scared stiff of bugs. I called him off the playground and we went somewhere private and I looked and there was nothing! Later when I told the teacher, she said, "He comes up to me and puts his head against my side and gives me a hug and I just shudder". I wanted to shout . . . but I didn't. I said "lice don't jump or fly". They are holding firmly onto a hair shaft at the base of the hair so they can get a supply of blood to live on from the scalp. They only live an hour or two without that supply. They aren't scurrying around a person's hair.

Later I checked in with the 1st elementary school and I saw a Kindergarten student with a hair net. I asked her why she had that on and she mumbled something but a woman came up and said "because she went on a field trip to the LTC and needed to protect the residents". Not only was that wrong scientifically but it was wrong to single that little girl out - it violated her medical privacy. I'll bet whoever did it mentioned the word "lice" in front of the other kids.

The only way any child could transfer the lice to a resident would be to get into bed with them and rub heads all night long. :facepalm: They can't jump from the hallway while the kids are walking by singing.

I haven't had that bad a lice day in a long time.

Vent over - but yeah, Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers can be big old scaredy cats. :rolleyes:

WOW! Some serious deep breathing exercises were needed that day, huh? I mean, the urge to throttle an adult or 3 had to be incredibly intense! How can they treat children this way??? Okay, disinfecting a child is one thing. I can roll my eyes at that. Making a child wear a hair net due to lice?? I would have a SERIOUSLY hard time keeping my mouth shut over that one. Not sure I would succeed actually. Teacher, Principal and I might need to have a chat on not bullying our students. Bullying seems to be a hot topic these days and gets people's attention pretty quickly. Humiliating a child can definitely be called bullying....and by a teacher, no less!

Okay, deep breathing needed on my end and I wasn't even involved!

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Speaking of those companies I just found out that there's a lice business in the big city 2 hours from here. A parent took her daughter after I told her I found nits. The company charges $99 for just their oils/shampoo and nit removal. They charge $199 to use the oils/shampoo and this heat/vaccum machine thingie that makes nit removal much easier. She left me the card. I also found out that there's this salon that only deals with lice and nit removal that's about over an hour away. But I know a lot of my kids won't be able to afford that or even the drive out there.

O..M..G.. A $5 bottle of Rid, used twice, a week apart, works wonders. :yes: As a parent with 3 kids, all in public school, we get Pink Eye and Lice notices at least once a year. You know what I do with them?? Throw them in the trash.

I got lice once when I was in high school. My cousin had had it and after shampooing her hair, I let her sleep in my bed. We were using Nix and come to find out, the strand of lice she/we had was immune to Nix. It would make them very sick but not kill them. Took us a few washings and a severe hair cut (waist-length to shoulder-length) to get rid of the problem but it was NOT the end of the world.

Kids have had pink eye, too.....also, not the end of the world.

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Specializes in Pediatrics/Developmental Pediatrics/Research/psych.
TGIF indeed. Here's my long story.

Yesterday I got a call from the elementary school principal in a panic because our local LTC facility had called to deny the 3rd Kindergarten class entry into the facility. A parent, who works there, said there was an "epidemic" of lice in the school. Fortunately my 2nd job is with our local hospital (which included the LTC) and I know the infection control nurse. So I called and said "Seriously? Lice can't jump or fly! Plus, there is NO epidemic". What has been happening is a that woman who spread the story is the mom of 3 kids who had head lice a few weeks ago. She treated on Friday and they went back to school on Monday and came home with live lice. She blamed that on the other kids at school - yeah, all 3 of her kids found another kid or kids who had head lice and sat next to them and lice jumped from one kid to another. Hey mom, maybe you missed some nits and they hatched. Sigh . . . .I got all the current scientific info, all the answers to the myths about lice, all the treatment options including the new one Sklice, a prescription and sent it to her weeks ago. The IC nurse thanked me and called the principal back and the kids got to go.

Then I went to our other elementary school and a Kindergarten teacher asked me to look at a kid who had been treated for lice but was scratching his head. I usually don't do this but this teacher is scared stiff of bugs. I called him off the playground and we went somewhere private and I looked and there was nothing! Later when I told the teacher, she said, "He comes up to me and puts his head against my side and gives me a hug and I just shudder". I wanted to shout . . . but I didn't. I said "lice don't jump or fly". They are holding firmly onto a hair shaft at the base of the hair so they can get a supply of blood to live on from the scalp. They only live an hour or two without that supply. They aren't scurrying around a person's hair.

Later I checked in with the 1st elementary school and I saw a Kindergarten student with a hair net. I asked her why she had that on and she mumbled something but a woman came up and said "because she went on a field trip to the LTC and needed to protect the residents". Not only was that wrong scientifically but it was wrong to single that little girl out - it violated her medical privacy. I'll bet whoever did it mentioned the word "lice" in front of the other kids.

The only way any child could transfer the lice to a resident would be to get into bed with them and rub heads all night long. :facepalm: They can't jump from the hallway while the kids are walking by singing.

I haven't had that bad a lice day in a long time.

Vent over - but yeah, Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers can be big old scaredy cats. :rolleyes:

When I was in kindergarten, there actually was a lice epidemic in my school (though epidemic is probably the wrong word). All students were required to come to school with their heads covered. I went to a religious school, and most of the mother's already wrote some sort of covering as well. My mom ended up taking pictures of us because we liked so funny. All of 4 years old, and wearing her scarf.

I remember that they actually ended up with an issue because students were swapping their scarves, oh well.

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When I was in kindergarten, there actually was a lice epidemic in my school (though epidemic is probably the wrong word). All students were required to come to school with their heads covered. I went to a religious school, and most of the mother's already wrote some sort of covering as well. My mom ended up taking pictures of us because we liked so funny. All of 4 years old, and wearing her scarf.

I remember that they actually ended up with an issue because students were swapping their scarves, oh well.

That's hilarious. Probably spread more lice with the head coverings!

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