what do you do?

Specialties School

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Here we go with the lice thing. What do you do if you have a family who doesn't properly treat? I have educated so many times. Mom doesn't do what I suggest, kids continue to have lice. Teacher wants child checked on a daily basis. It's pointless, we know they are there, and I can't fix it. Principal excluded for a couple days, still nothing. What now? Sorry to beat a dead horse; people expect me to fix it and I don't know what to do/say. Help me. (They won't let me have wine here.) :-/

Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
Help me. (They won't let me have wine here.) :-/

I'm sorry.

What does your policy say? Ours says check now, check the next day, check in 7 days (Old Dude would remind us here that 7-10 is the real window) and then episodically at day 14 (Old Dude would say day 20).

Daily lice checks don't help unless you're attempting to demonstrate that there are still live lice. If there are still live lice then it's likely the student was not treated with a permethrin/alcohol/ivermectin type product. That may be grounds for a neglect complaint.

Tell teacher that it's not necessary to check every day if you've verified there are no live bugs. Get admin involved if you continue to see live bugs because they're not treating the student. Why? Don't know. It could be they don't want to use a chemical and are using rosemary or olive oil or another home remedy that isn't completely efficacious. It could be neglect. You just have to document it all.

Sorry!!!

Specializes in NCSN.

That stinks.

Our policy says that the nurse checks when the student returns to confirm treatment, but parent's lie all the time and then you are stuck. We have had nurse's report for neglect but it was after months of going back and forth with the family because they kept claiming they were doing everything asked of them and that their little one was getting it from the school.

Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

Is the kiddo old enough to ask if he/she is being treated or combed through at home? If so, and kid says no, I would say your neglect argument has more of a leg to stand on.

You have to follow your policy, is there actual live lice or only nits?

Specializes in School Nurse, Pediatrics, Surgical.

What has mom BEEN doing to treat the lice? What products has s he used? Has she contacted the child's health care provider?

Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.

At least your admin isn't making you check the WHOLE school (568 students) for lice to be "proactive".

:banghead:

At least your admin isn't making you check the WHOLE school (568 students) for lice to be "proactive".

:banghead:

That is so wildly inappropriate.

Specializes in School health, pediatrics.

I found out that in our district we have had families with orders for PRN NIX at school. If live lice were found, the clinic staff would treat in the clinic bathroom and return to class.

Specializes in School Nursing, Pediatrics.

If ONLY we could have wine at school, it would make things SO much better!!! LOL:yes:

Anyway, Do you have a social worker at your school? Or a school adjustment councilor? Someone else in your district to help deal with family matters? I would get them involved as well.

Also, your principal needs to be more proactive, maybe you 2 can "tag team" the mom and find out WHY she isn't doing the treatments (can they not afford it? not sure how to do? can't read the directions? is overwhelmed by the entire thing? Has too many kids to deal with? or is just your typical lazy @ss parent?). If you have a policy I would give that to the parent as well. Good luck!

Got a phone call from a mom this morning about her student having lice. Wouldn't tell me who the student is, just that she was embarrassed about it and could I inform others to watch out for it. Am I supposed to check the entire Middle School on that limited information, tell every teacher, cause mass hysteria? What exactly did she want me to do with that information?

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