Asking me to go against policy

Published

  1. Sped Teachers be allowed to assess/send home their students without Health office input?

    • 1
      YES-they know students
    • 38
      NO- it's Health Office job
    • 9
      Maybe- depends on situation

46 members have participated

Specializes in School Nursing.

I will try to make this short...

In a nut shell, Special ED director sent me an email asking that the Special ED teacher, be able to send her special needs students home without question. SpecED teacher was annoyed at my assessment of NO fever, and annoyed I called parent to say child had No fever. She wants all ability to override me, but GET THIS- they still want the students to come to the health office, and ME to call parent for child to go home without me even looking/assessing anything!:no:

I pulled rank, and said NOT Gonna Happen.

Waiting on my supervisor/Principle to comment on email.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

Why even bother showing up for work when she can just do it all...

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I could see scenarios where a child would need to go home without health office assessment, but not a scenario where the health office should then be responsible for making that call/arranging pick up. If they are trying to send home for a nonhealth reason it is not the health office's responsibility to dismiss, and if they are trying to send home for a health reason then it should be the health office's decision! Should be obvious but I know it isn't always that simple :bored: not like we send children to their teachers with instructions on what to teach them :cyclops:

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Specializes in school/military/OR/home health.
I could see scenarios where a child would need to go home without health office assessment, but not a scenario where the health office should then be responsible for making that call/arranging pick up. If they are trying to send home for a nonhealth reason it is not the health office's responsibility to dismiss, and if they are trying to send home for a health reason then it should be the health office's decision! Should be obvious but I know it isn't always that simple :bored: not like we send children to their teachers with instructions on what to teach them :cyclops:
My thoughts exactly. They may send home for reasons they decide, if they do all the footwork, it has nothing to do with you. But the moment they involve the nurse's office, it becomes a nurse's decision. They likely just want to send the kid home with an excused absence. Which as we have established, it is not if anyone other than the nurse decides it.
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Minimizing days missed is part of most of my spec ED kiddos' IEPs. This means the nurse needs to make the call to send them home, if it's for a medical reason, and I use the same criteria for every kid. Some of my more sensitive kids, I may give the parents a heads up that I've seen them for a runny nose, but no fever and I'll update later if anything changes(spec ED or not). The teachers are free to offer their observations(head down, unproductive, crying, sleepy, ect.) and I genuinely love it when they give me this info, but ultimately it's a nursing decision.

If it's behavioral, I want nothing to do with that!

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Just a little backround to the story-

They took students temp in their classroom was 99.5. Our policy is 100.4. I took temp- 98.9/99.3 I take temps on both temples and middle forehead for best results. Normal temp, Aide freaked out and said I don't care he is sick needs to go home. I called dad, he said if no fever he was not picking him up. CASE closed...NOPE! Aide grabs my temp gauge and takes his temp right there and then when im on the phone to dad RUDE- and says he has a temp NOW! I took it again, and again it was 99.5, still not 100.4. Dad agrees to let me recheck temp again in 30 mins just to appease all parties, way more than fair I believe.

I rechecked in 15 minutes cause it was lunch time, and again Normal 98.6/98.3 temp. I called to speced room for someone to get student, and teacher goes full on crazy- tells me she's sending an email and HANGS UP ON ME :madface:

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Just a little backround to the story-

They took students temp in their classroom was 99.5. Our policy is 100.4. I took temp- 98.9/99.3 I take temps on both temples and middle forehead for best results. Normal temp, Aide freaked out and said I don't care he is sick needs to go home. I called dad, he said if no fever he was not picking him up. CASE closed...NOPE! Aide grabs my temp gauge and takes his temp right there and then when im on the phone to dad RUDE- and says he has a temp NOW! I took it again, and again it was 99.5, still not 100.4. Dad agrees to let me recheck temp again in 30 mins just to appease all parties, way more than fair I believe.

I rechecked in 15 minutes cause it was lunch time, and again Normal 98.6/98.3 temp. I called to speced room for someone to get student, and teacher goes full on crazy- tells me she's sending an email and HANGS UP ON ME :madface:

Oh hell no! I would have lost my cool on that aide, for sure! They are in no way qualified to make MEDICAL decisions. Normal body temp fluctuates throughout the day, that's why 100.4 is the cut off. This person had no business touching your equipment (and why do they have a thermometer in their classroom?!? that's unnecessary!) and should be spoken to about their unprofessional behavior by admin.

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I would say yes only if administration, is on board, but not in any scenario that the student leaves excused from the health office. If the teacher wants to have a conversation with a parent and they come to the decision that the student leaves and admin says that's okay. Okay let them leave from the classroom as an early dismissal and unexcused. If they go to the doctor and return with a note then change to unexcused. Some spec ed cannot communicate to the point of a full assessment and a teachers input in those cases are valueable.

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Specializes in School Nurse.

I get it, SPED teacher dealing with 10 students all snotty, with cough, and can't help themselves - yes gross, but not go home sick. I am at a loss as well with the alarmist reaction for simple allergies. On the other hand I will send SPED student home for 1 diarrhea and or vomiting x 1 with no other symptoms, red eyes - basically anything they can easily spread because they don't understand germs - and I am happy to do that. I have found SPED to be the least tolerant of teachers. On the other hand any time one of these cupcakes is injured in class it becomes practically a court case, so they have me document, document, document. No problem; I get it, but the current teacher expects me to make the parent phone call. I have her trained now (she's not happy about it) - she makes the call and tells parent the student was seen by nurse and I have cleared them.

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Specializes in ED, School Nurse.

I agree with the above posters. You dismiss for health issues (which is your decision based on your assessment) only, all other dismissal issues go through the teacher and/or administration.

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Specializes in School Nurse.

If a medical condition is not present, I would not get involved. I would not bring the student into the clinic, or call parents from the clinic. If this teacher wants to send this student home, let her explain it to admin. Also, let admin know that full responsibility falls on them if this student is sent home with no existing condition. This student needs you to be an advocate for them. The student has the right to be in class and not be sent home because the teacher/aide does not want them there. Good Luck!!!

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I've been a school nurse for over 30 yrs with Sped students. I have a lot of Down Syndrome students. These kids are always nasally congested whether they have a cold or not. I see a lot of them, especially when they have a teacher that is new to Sped. I have to do a lot of educating the new teachers that a stuffy, runny nose for these kids is a constant thing and does not necessarily mean that they are sick. I've also seen teachers trying to get a student sent home because the student "is just not himself today" Yes, they do know their students but you will find that some teachers ( aides are even worse in my experience) want kids sent home because they just don't want to deal with them. What the aide did to you was so over the top....I would have become unglued.

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