Cough drops

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I am allowed to dispense cough drops per standing order in my school. I buy cheap ones in boxes of 1200.

In the month of September I went through 1 box plus some of cough drops. So probably about 1400 cough drops. IN ONE MONTH!!!!!

I went through 1 box (1200) for the entire school year last year.

I have students stop in ALL DAY LONG asking for cough drops. They leave in the middle of class just for cough drops. They come to my office between classes and get cough drops. They even come after school for cough drops.

Sometimes it's the same student. Sometimes it's all different students. Sometimes it's an afterthought. Like "Can I have ibuprofen for my headache? Oh! And can I get some cough drops?" I even had one student come in and take some "for the weekend, because we can't afford them." I was in the middle of something else when she said this so I didn't have time to stop her, plus I felt kind of bad.

I have started telling people I am out of cough drops (even though I am not) to see if this will curb down on the visits. But it hasn't.

So what do I do? Keep giving them out? Stop giving them out all together? Limit to 2? Then they'll be back for more before class even ends (We have 80 minute blocks in our school).

How do you handle cough drops at your school?

Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.
SPIT works best on 'squeeter' bites. Really, it does. Has something to do with the salivary amylase in spit. Like meat tenderizer, it zaps the itch.

So I should start spitting on my students and advise teachers do the same? I like it! I'm already reallocating my hydrocortisone budget. Thanks!

And it's spelled "skeeter." I went to high school with a girl named Skeeter. Seriously, that was her name on her birth certificate. Even in TN, what a dreadful name.

Specializes in retired LTC.

As kids, we never had any special cremes for itches. My Mom would make us put spit on our finger and then apply it to the bug bite site. One of those old-fashioned "mommy'' cures.

Squeeter - skeeter = itchy.

And it's spelled "skeeter." I went to high school with a girl named Skeeter. Seriously, that was her name on her birth certificate. Even in TN, what a dreadful name.

We have one in our family. My husband's cousin's son is Skeeter. He was named that because he was very small when he was born - like a mosquito. Skeeter in our part of the world means mosquito.

Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg.
The RULE is 3 ellipses! THREE!

You guys are killing me...

If you're going to get picky... It's one elipsis, which comprises three dots. Three ellipses would be nine dots. NINE, Far... As in far too many! :geek:

If you're going to get picky... It's one elipsis, which comprises three dots. Three ellipses would be nine dots. NINE, Far... As in far too many! :geek:

Oh my gosh . . . .. kicked Far's backside!! :roflmao:

If you're going to get picky... It's one elipsis, which comprises three dots. Three ellipses would be nine dots. NINE, Far... As in far too many! :geek:

That's the thing I love about being a nurse.

No math required.

I thought it was like the "deers" thread.

Watch your back, Anth. :)

(but I noticed you used the proper 3...)

How times have changed since the 60's and 70's when I went to school when bringing your own cough drops and aspirin to school were not a crime.

Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.
How times have changed since the 60's and 70's when I went to school when bringing your own cough drops and aspirin to school were not a crime.

Right? I remember a friend bringing her antibiotic in her thermal lunch box so it would stay cold and taking it at the appointed time all by herself.

I remember getting stung by a bee on the playground (circa 1979) and the teacher sent me by myself across campus to the cafeteria so the lunch lady could chop me a piece of onion to put on the sting. Onion??

Specializes in Acute Care, CM, School Nursing.
I also got rid of petroleum jelly (still keep a stash) and anti-itch cream. I had a teacher last year send me 60 kids in 2 months just for mosquito bites!! And I was getting every single kid with dry lips or dry nose coming for "chapstick". I was over it! Told my Principal to send out an email letting everyone know that I will no longer carry non-essential items in the nursing clinic such as those two items. If they want to deal with it....go buy some and dispense in your own classroom.

This is awesome! How did the staff react?? At the elementary schools I have worked in, the staff's heads would have exploded if I started refusing to deal with those things. Heaven forbid that the precious li'l snowflakes experience even a millisecond of discomfort...

Luckily in my school district I don't have to make my own purchase of band aids or vaseline. For the kids complaining of itching I make a baking soda paste

Specializes in School Nursing, Hospice,Med-Surg.

I still revel in the fantasy of spitting on the kids....

I know we've gotten off the topic of cough drops. :) But, I don't carry them, and it blows the student's minds! The nurse last year did. But, I don't have permission to provide them as an OTC medicine anyway, so I'm not going to. It actually makes the teacher's pretty happy as they don't have kids asking to go get cough drops constantly.

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