Bathroom Accidents/Change of Clothes

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Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.

Happy Monday! Are you counting days til Summer? 3.5 days for me!

So, I have a question for those of you in elementary schools and how you handle potty accidents.

I am the lone nurse at our school and when our littles have pee and poop accidents the responsibility falls to me to handle the clean-up and change of these kids. I make a point, whenever humanly possible, to hand these kids a change of clothes & either send them to the restroom or give them privacy in my clinic closet to change. Then I always notify their parent of the situation via email and give details of how they were able to change/clean on their own.

BUT, often at the beginning of the school year, my K5 kids need significant help with changing and clean-up. Or there's a kid in the bathroom that needs me to come wipe their bottom. And there's this one kid in 1st grade that has ZERO modesty and before I can leave the closet he's porky pigging it right there. He's been doing that for 2 years now. I love him but I'm ALWAYS telling him, "wait til I get out, buddy!"

So, how do you guys handle these situations? Do you pull another staff or faculty in to witness? Do you insist a kid do this on their own without your help? How do you protect yourself?

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

I don't change clothes or wipe bottoms. At the beginning of the school year I send a notice home that we don't keep extra clothing at school and recommend parent's send extra clothing to school for potty accidents, playground mud, spilled cafeteria food, nosebleeds, etc. So, if a student has a pee accident, and has clothes, and can change themselves, I let them do it and go back to class. Otherwise I call a parent to come to school and take care of it.

The PK teachers will help their kids with potty accidents.

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yes...to what OldDude wrote - I do the same now. This year has been the worst for me with bathroom issues - I had about a dozen kinders this year that could not wipe themselves or who had frequent accidents even one who started wearing pull ups and was not completely potty trained - between me and the AP we had that one trained in a week.

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before I can leave the closet he's porky pigging it right there. He's been doing that for 2 years now. I

:roflmao:

Glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that.

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Yeah, we are K-5 and I have some clothes, but often a parent has to bring some.

I ask K parents to send a change of clothes, but they don't.

I keep wipes/bags for dirty clothes in the BR and the kids change themselves.

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Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.

Calling a parent and asking them to come clean their student up is not feasible, in my opinion. We live in the suburbs of a very large city. Commutes to and from work can be an hour or more due to traffic. Having a parent drive back to school to wipe a bottom or change underwear is a ridiculous request.

I don't have a clinic assist and we don't have PAs. I am discussing with my principal where we should go from here and he wants me to scope out how "other school nurses" handle this type of situation.

Our school's uniform policy requires all students wear a belt and I've requested we do away with that for our littles since that seems to be the culprit in most of our potty accidents.

I appreciate your input on this!

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I don't change clothes or wipe bottoms. At the beginning of the school year I send a notice home that we don't keep extra clothing at school and recommend parent's send extra clothing to school for potty accidents, playground mud, spilled cafeteria food, nosebleeds, etc. So, if a student has a pee accident, and has clothes, and can change themselves, I let them do it and go back to class. Otherwise I call a parent to come to school and take care of it.

The PK teachers will help their kids with potty accidents.

I am at a PK - 2nd grade campus with 850 students. I do the same as OldDude.

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Specializes in School Nurse.

So...my question. What do you guys do if you have a student who has an accident, no change of clothes, no extra clothes in backpack, and no phone numbers work??? Do you send them back to class?

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
Calling a parent and asking them to come clean their student up is not feasible, in my opinion. We live in the suburbs of a very large city. Commutes to and from work can be an hour or more due to traffic. Having a parent drive back to school to wipe a bottom or change underwear is a ridiculous request.

NanaPoo...one allegation lodged against you by a parent for inappropriately touching their child can end your professional career; the truth isn't relevant at that point. I don't engage in changing kids or wiping a kid's bottom for this exact reason. So I don't care how much trouble it is for a parent to come to school and take care of their child. As a guy I have to be hyper-vigilant about placing myself in potentially career busting situations. I realize the chances of a woman being in such a situation is much less probable but it is possible. All the kid has to do is just say to their parent, "the school nurse touched my..." and no matter what the truth is the school nurse is guilty, regardless of reality.

We've had numerous conversations on this forum about not removing clothing to examine a child unless it was some kind of emergency and the general consensus is most nurses agree with this practice. I can't see how this subject differs regarding such precautions.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

You are very wise OldDude ! I totally agree with this as well. Hey People....it's 2016. The world is a different place now. Protect yourself, first and foremost.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
So...my question. What do you guys do if you have a student who has an accident, no change of clothes, no extra clothes in backpack, and no phone numbers work??? Do you send them back to class?

If it's just urine, I'll let them sit here until their clothes are dry and let them go back to class. If it's poop I get to enjoy the aroma until dismissal.

Fortunately I don't recall a poop incident that lasted until dismissal.

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Specializes in School Nurse.
If it's just urine, I'll let them sit here until their clothes are dry and let them go back to class. If it's poop I get to enjoy the aroma until dismissal.

Fortunately I don't recall a poop incident that lasted until dismissal.

Lucky you, mine seem to linger all day.

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