Advice Needed

[Tencat12]

Hi all! I am wondering what to do next after a scary incident. Long story short, a student had been placed on a suicide watch plan with administration and counseling, but no one thought it might be nice to let the nurse in on the secret. Student presents in my office with erratic behavior, is a known frequent flyer, and admin had called mom to come pick student up and take student home as student was disrupting class with odd behaviors. A little more digging with student and mom reveals the info that student had been threatening suicide this week. At this point situation was emergent, and I sent mom and kid to ER right then and there. Kid gets admitted to psych unit and all hell breaks loose at my school district with HR, and the school administration demanding I be fired because I did not activate EMS right away for suspicions that student may have ingested drugs. This is when it came out that student had been on a suicide watch plan. I have yet to find out if student DID ingest drugs. All I know is that vital signs were all within normal limits at the time and student was alert and coherent in my office.

I want to write a letter to all admin and my bosses stating that withholding information from the nurse, no matter who that might be, is reckless. I am still in major self-protection mode right now, and I might not be seeing this clearly. I am looking for other jobs as this is the last straw in a string of incidents with admin and no support from district. Part of me wants to make a huge stink about it, but part of me says cut my losses and run.

Any advice always appreciated. Thanks!

[Tencat12]

Thanks for all your support! Kid is doing well and still inpatient. Mother thanked me for all 'our' help from the school. :) Counselor accused me of 'overreacting' as student was 'only looking for attention and not REALLY suicidal....' Yup. The sad thing is they are going to REALLY screw up some day and not be 'lucky' at the expense of some poor kid. I'm tired of being run over by buses.....I don't know how all you great school nurses do it. I have never worked anywhere else where I was so worried daily about my license and my sanity......

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

Counselor accused me of 'overreacting' as student was 'only looking for attention and not REALLY suicidal....'

"Counselor X, thank you for your opinion. You were not in the room and did not see what I saw. My license allows me to assess the patient in a different way than your license/certification does. The health of this student, and my license, is important to me. And the student's still inpatient so...plainly he had YOU fooled...."

Just kidding. Skip that last sentence. But find a way to make it clear that you aren't going to tolerate being slandered.

You did the best you could with what you had.

[WineRN]

"Counselor X, thank you for your opinion. You were not in the room and did not see what I saw. My license allows me to assess the patient in a different way than your license/certification does. The health of this student, and my license, is important to me. And the student's still inpatient so...plainly he had YOU fooled...."

Just kidding. Skip that last sentence. But find a way to make it clear that you aren't going to tolerate being slandered.

You did the best you could with what you had.

But my favorite part is the last sentence.

But seriously, I agree that you don't need to tolerate that.

[NurseBeans, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Counselor accused me of 'overreacting' as student was 'only looking for attention and not REALLY suicidal....' Yup.

But you don't know if someone is attention-seeking or suicidal until they commit the act. Also, someone voicing thoughts of suicide, whether attention-seeking or not, is ill enough to seek help. As a school counselor, SHE ought to know that. Funny how they went from saying you should have called EMS to saying you over reacted. What is the deal with your admin?

[Tencat12]

Admin. Batsh-- crazy. Straight up. An insecure, micromanaging principal who avoids any kind of confrontation like the plague (and blows me off when I request meetings) with a squad of syncophants.....Holy cow. I really should have left a while ago. I pity the nurse who follows....

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

Why was the student not emergency petitioned BEFORE this? Suicide watch? What is that? Watch them kill themselves? This sounds like the school system failed and is putting you in front of the bus. I would have told mom that I must call 911 to assure the student makes it to an ER immediately, that's just me and my paranoia.

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

Counselor accused me of 'overreacting' as student was 'only looking for attention and not REALLY suicidal....'

That counselor is mandated to call, why wasn't she threatened? Suicide could be argued to be attention seeking. I would lawyer up.

[Tencat12]

I thought about a lawyer, but I'm not being fired over it. I'm just choosing to get out of this school. I have documented the crap out of the situation. Kid ended up where kid needed to be (hospital) and is getting the help that they need. I think parents have a lawsuit if they chose to bring one against the school.