Brainstorm with me.......

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I would like to start by saying this is my first year as a school nurse. I love it.

The principal has asked that I write a letter to all staff explaining the rationale behind sending the students back to class when they dont "feel good."

I have a handful of teachers that are very verbal about not wanting to "spread anything" and they dislike VERY much when I send students back down to their room. (sent a congested student back with no fever but was coughing, only 2 hours left of school...cough drop and back to class she went)

The principal is on my side and agrees that unless I feel they are contagious.....They need to be in their seats. So I guess my question for you is the wording for this letter.......

I wanna just say....Hey listen, we all don't feel good sometimes and that doesn't mean we go home with every ache, pain and cough. Help me word this ......Help me with some great points to make in this letter....I am a newbie but know you guys will be of great help......

Do you have something like this already wrote up (going home protocol) that you can message me?

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Pull up your school's exclusion guidelines and use that as a reference. I had issues with parents getting upset for sending their child home. It helped to have guidelines to show backing up my decision. I'm sure that will help in this case also.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

The principal is on my side and agrees that unless I feel they are contagious.....They need to be in their seats.....

So if your principal agrees with you what else need to be said? You can explain until the cows come home and the staff isn't going to think any way other than what they think. As rollernurse365 referenced, the rules are the rules, the principal affirms the rules, case closed.

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Specializes in Community Health/School Nursing.

I say the Principal needs to send a letter out telling the staff not to question you every time you send a student back. If we sent every student home with a sniffle, cough, headache, stomachache, sore throat, itchy scalp, chapped lips and imaginary vomit/diarrhea....half the kids would be missing each day in class.

I believe all school nurses tend to have issues with the certain staff who will not take no for an answer. Very frustrating.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Oncology, School Nursing, OB.

You could also mention that with coughs/colds , everyone has already been exposed and sending a student home for that who is not running a fever will not prevent the spread but that washing hands and covering coughs with an elbow will help.

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Specializes in School nursing.

I agree this needs to come from your principal. You can help the principal with some things to include, but in my experience, my sending this email/letter means nothing. If it comes from someone higher than me - it means something.

I had a similar experience; I have had 40+ visitors (not including meds, asthma, diabetic visits) in my office for the past three months which was double what I saw last year. At least 10 of those visits per day were unnecessary and lead to lost productivity for students. I talked with my boss - not a nurse, but a higher up administrator at the school - about the increase and what it meant for the other work the school needed me to complete. My boss was great and was the one that sent out an email about it and has even started a policy to give me a dedicated lunch half hour! If the email had come from me, it would have not meant much.

Support is a wonderful thing.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

i've had staff verbally challenge me over similar cough and cold type visits and boomerang visitors. At first i'll take a nice, light hearted approach - something along the lines of "if i sent home everyone that has a cold or a little sniffle, there'd be no one left to teach" but at the end of the day i've realized that some (not all) teachers are overwhelmed with what they have and would be happy to walk into a class that only has 3 kids in it. I've taken the approach of "how annoyed would you be if your kid's school nurse sent your kid home just because they had a cold?"

and if they still don't get it then i just get blunt and tell them that there is really nothing i can do for a head cold except remind a student to increase fluids (check their temp if they are the melodramatic and have to know the number type - my non contact veratemp has been my salvation for this as it doesn't waste probe covers!) and ship them right back.

If the principal wants a letter, the principal should draft and send the letter. It will have more of an impact in my humble opinion.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

We taught our son that attending school was his "job" and he seldom missed a day. That's how you teach your child a good work ethic. You go to shool/work even when are not "feeling it"

I would stress this is also an opportunity for you to teach these students about infection control and ask the staff's assistance with that. You could start some kind of program-posters and all. They should all have their own tissues, hand sanitizer should be every where as well as products for wiping down the desks,etc....

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A growing body of evidence supports that missing even a few days of school impacts achievement. Every School Day Counts: The Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data - Why Does Attendance Matter?

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OR you could send every little sniffle home and when test scores start to drop (and thus impact the teachers' evaluations---not saying this is fair or right, but it is what it is), they'll be begging you to keep every kid in school! ;)

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