Bed bugs

[Riley RN]

Have any of you had to deal with a bed bug issue at your school? We don't actually have them IN our school (yet), but a student has them at home. The dogs swept our school this morning and we are clear at the moment. This is my second time dealing with this issue. I have a "hot box" set up in my office right now with the student's clothes (she brought in an extra set to change into) and her jacket and back pack. Staff is looking to me to control the issue and prevent it from entering our school. So my issue is this....does anyone think that it might not be a good idea for the nurse's office to be ground zero for the mediation process? Honestly, I'm not crazy about having to cook her belongings everyday and exposing myself to this issue, but really, shouldn't the nurse's office be a CLEAN environment?!? Why does this fall under the category of school nurse problem. FYI, she has no bites that need treatment - if she did then I could understand my role as a nurse in this situation. And really, can you imagine if a staff member was expected to have this contraption in his/her classroom? They would never allow it.

[WineRN]

I had a previous position in a LTC community with young adults with DDs that had a bed bug outbreak. Other than treating the bites, nursing was not allowed to be involved. For the longest time our administration attempted to restrict us from using the words "bed bugs" in our reporting. We had a 'home connection' team, similar to the school social workers that handled clothing, provided information on treatment to the families and containing the spread.

Now that I'm a school nurse I can see how they would try to push it on the nurse, but I think ultimately it falls back on the parent. Just like with lice, we can tell parents to do the treatment at home to help prevent the spread at school

[nursetlm, ADN]

So a bug was never actually found at your school??

[Sassyrose]

I know this isn't what you are asking. I'm not a school nurse and have never been one. However, I thought I would add some practical advice. I had bed bugs several years ago when a neighbor decided to bring in a suspect mattress that he got from who knows where. It is very, very worth your effort to contain this problem, whether it really should be on you or not. Turns out I am very reactive to their bites. I'd scratch past bleeding and the only thing that helped was a hot shower, and that was only for a few minutes (probably should have tried benadryl, lol). I slept like I was a ninja, with every bit of skin covered as I could manage. I cleaned my apartment thoroughly and threw out a lot of paper and cardboard, etc etc. What really helped though, was that I put rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and hunted them down. When I found them, and even when I didn't, when they are little they are hard to see, I saturated the crap out of them with the alcohol and let me tell you, they died right there. THAT is what got rid of my bed bugs. So, if you can get away with a spray bottle and lots of rubbing alcohol, anytime someone suspect comes in, spray the seams of furniture and maybe the clothes too. It was a life altering experience getting bed bugs, really. I never wish to go through that again. Horrible. I'd take lice or fleas any day over bed bugs.

[Each1Teach1]

For public schools here in NYC, the nurse's task is to assess the student, clean off any bites and apply an ice pack for comfort (swelling, itching). We have bed bug info sheets that we could send to the child's parent that includes what they are, where they hide, etc. If a bed bug is found, it must be placed in a sandwich bag and sent to Pest Control so they could determine if it is indeed a bed bug. (The custodial staff is usually in charge of that.) If it is, they'll schedule a date where exterminators can come in.

There was a bug found on a child in my school recently. The staff wanted me to send the child home but the policy states that a child cannot be sent home as bed begs don't transfer disease. If the teacher or principal wants to send the child home, THEY can. Not me. We're here to assess and care for the child. Not do strip searches and inspect possessions. A teacher bagged all of the child's possessions and everything in her cubby and dropped it off in my office when I turned my back. She came by at dismissal asking me if I searched everything...including the teddy bear! No...have several seats.

Follow your guidelines and don't let unlicensed personnel try to bully you. Everyone thinks they're experts and will push on you the tasks that they don't want to do.

Cheers!

[nursetlm, ADN]

No...have several seats.

I love this saying!

[OldDude]

Follow your guidelines and don't let unlicensed personnel try to bully you. Everyone thinks they're experts and will push on you the tasks that they don't want to do.

Cheers!

YOU BET!!!!!

Texas Department of Health has NO regulation or even reference guidelines to bedbugs in the public school setting. It's all up to how much hysteria the local school districts want to generate.