what do you do?

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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.
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.

Oh wow. Parental consent??

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Specializes in School nursing.

Oh, chasinRT, this reminds me of a situation involving lice before I finally got the policy changed. We had one student with lice. Parent did everything to treat EXCEPT medicated shampoo. I mean olive oil, essential oils, even dyed the kids hair black as parent stated she was told that would work. Well, it didn't. None of these did. Kid showed up to school every day with live lice.

This was back when we still sent kid home with it, though return to school with nits was okay. Kid was sent home every day for almost two weeks. Mom told us she couldn't afford the shampoo (but the essential oils she could...?), so we bought some for her to use. Did not use it.

Finally gave up. Kid had lice for at least two more months until perhaps Mom finally used the treatment. We stopped sending kid home because student was failing due to lost instruction time. New policy - I'll call home if I find it and give parents option to pick up, but it isn't necessary (Most parents will and we have several sibling sets, so I usually will check a sibling and recommend treatment for sibling as well when they get home).

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.
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?

Yes!! I get this from time to time and think ok? now what??? and pretty much put it in my mental trash can. Then last month a parent called me in a RAGE because her child just got a treatment by one of those pricey lice places and I knew there was lice in the school because SHE KNEW i got a call. OK really? Well. First of all, was it you that called me? because it's illogical for me to check all 800 kids here. if we can boil it down to a class, i miiight consider it (but still probably won't do it) but at the very least I will probably tell the teacher to watch for scratchers. And second the parent goes off with this list of demands of things WE need to do to prevent the lice from spreading - put all the kids backpacks in extra large ziplocs (uh what? do they even make those first of all and secondly - NO!) Send out a mass letter to the ENTIRE student body. (my supe and I agreed to quell this parent by sending a letter to this child's class, a very basic vanilla letter saying check your child from time to time) and she wanted me to check the entire class. NO. Lice not found here - no other active cases in the school save for that class. So staaaahhhp!!

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At my last school I tried to be proactive and stay on top of lice checks. At that school every nine weeks (report card time) every teacher would pull their class out into the hall and check them. They would send the children with live lice to me a little bit later and I would send home. Very rarely did I have a student that wasn't a "repeat offender". It became a daily habit of several children at my office door every morning for me to get the live lice out of their hair just so they could go to class because nobody was gonna treat at home. It became exhausting.

My own children have had lice and guess what...yep you can get rid of it. It takes treating the child and being vigilant about combing out the nits. I sat my children in front of the TV every other day for 2 weeks and made sure every nit was gone. We didn't even have to retreat because there were no nits to hatch out. I realized most of the parents at my school were not doing "everything they could do" to get rid of the lice. That's when honestly I just threw my hands up. Our policy is no live bugs but they can have nits. So now at my new school I could honestly care less if they have lice. The same children keep it. Its sad but its the same every year the teachers tell me. So they get sent home come back and 7-10 days later they get sent home again. Until the policy changes then there is nothing I can do other than educate.

Making you check every student is ridiculous and not going to be effective. I would talk to whoever you report to and see about what needs to be done. That is just wasting your time.

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I realized most of the parents at my school were not doing "everything they could do" to get rid of the lice. That's when honestly I just threw my hands up. Our policy is no live bugs but they can have nits. So now at my new school I could honestly care less if they have lice. The same children keep it. .

I truly have this mindset and my limited experience has now proven that it's not "contagious" in the way parents and the public think it is. I have two sets of siblings that have been repeat offenders ... never anyone else in their classes showing up with it (I don't do lice checks but the teachers were aware to send any scratchers to me). These kids literally had them visibly crawling around the front of their head when they came to me. In any case, it was the same two sets of siblings that kept popping up with is over a 5 week period.

Finally, I saw the 4 of them leaving school together and realized they are cousins and hang out at each other's homes. Suddenly it all made sense and I realized that my mini-outbreak was still confined to one family.

Good luck OP!

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The stigma around lice is amazing. Yes, socio-economics do play a role, especially in chronic conditions. On the other hand, my children go a private school where the average family income is well over 100,000. And there are still lice outbreaks. Children + Hair = Potential for Lice.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

ARRRRRRRRRGGGGG! Head lice do not pose any public health concern and they are considered by the CDC to be normal human flora! Here's the CDC handout.

CDC - Lice - Head Lice - General Information - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

out

Hppy

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Specializes in School health, pediatrics.
Oh wow. Parental consent??

Yes, the parent filled out the order.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
Yes, the parent filled out the order.

Wow. I was looking for a jaw-drop emoji.... This will do. :facepalm:

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

Am I missing something? Daily nit picking alone for 2 weeks will clear an infestation, a comb costs $10. Do parents really have no time to do this?

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