Crazy Parents

[maryel]

I had a 7th grade student come to school yesterday with a bottle of Focalin in his back pack. He brings it to me in the morning with no papers from the parent or doctor. (The bottle is labeled). I called the mother and told her I am not able to give her child his medication without a medication consent form that is signed by the doctor and her, and said she will need to come give him his med and also, that an adult needs to bring his medication to school. She said her car has been broken down for 3 weeks and she can't do anything about it. She said, "Well have fun with my son's crazy behavior then." I faxed her the medication form so she can sign it and send to the doctor. I come to work today, beginning of the year, DROWNING in shot records, and of course I still have nothing for this student. OF COURSE. He comes in to take his med and I tell him I cannot give it to him because I still have nothing from his mom or doctor. I call her and she is IRATE that i will not give him his med. She says that she faxed it to the doctor and it is out of her hands now and it is ridiculous that I will not give him his med. Her car is broke down (she tells me again) and she can do nothing. (NOT MY FAULT RIGHT???) She said her son is going to get sick now because he isn't getting his med. She says to just hand him the bottle and let him take his med. I told her to call my supervisor and I also had my principal call her. We heard nothing back so far. She was yelling at me so crazily. I am so stuck!!! What would you have done??? Of course now I think something is going to happen and he is going to get sick because he has no meds. She has gotten to me and I shouldn't let her. She could take the bus, cab, call a friend. She has had 3 weeks to figure it out. she said her son has been in the district for 5 years and expects me to use orders from previous years. UGH!!

[RatherBHiking, BSN, RN]

I think you all are right. No more Mr. Nice Guy. I'm done faxing for parents. I started to have so many I realized how much of my day was wasted filling out med order forms and fax sheets for dr's and then sending the orders home to be signed by the parents once the dr faxed them back. We send home blank orders before the last day of school so parents have several weeks to get this done! It's not my job to get the dr's order filled out. The more you give the more they take. I guess I just had to learn the hard way!

Plus us I don't know how many teachers I have come up to me and say "why does this child not have an inhaler or epi pen at school if the parent says they need it?" I'm like I've called the parent and sent notes home, I cannot make the parent bring them in. They act like I'm supposed to do something more. I document it but is there anything else I need to do?

[mc3, ASN, RN]

Just document how many attempts you made, and keep a copy of the letters you send home. We can only do so much!

mc3:nurse:

[Ddoyle]

I think you all are right. No more Mr. Nice Guy. I'm done faxing for parents. I started to have so many I realized how much of my day was wasted filling out med order forms and fax sheets for dr's and then sending the orders home to be signed by the parents once the dr faxed them back. We send home blank orders before the last day of school so parents have several weeks to get this done! It's not my job to get the dr's order filled out. The more you give the more they take. I guess I just had to learn the hard way!

Plus us I don't know how many teachers I have come up to me and say "why does this child not have an inhaler or epi pen at school if the parent says they need it?" I'm like I've called the parent and sent notes home, I cannot make the parent bring them in. They act like I'm supposed to do something more. I document it but is there anything else I need to do?

I get these questions from teachers too... except I have no records of ANY issues with the kids. I have to call home for them to tell me they have life-threatening allergic reactions to peanuts or they have very bad asthma and was recently taken to the hospital for an asthma attack.

You didn't think this was all stuff important for your school health office to know? Really?

[maryel]

I had a student who I found out had seizures and when I called his mom she said, " I just figured the nurse from his other school would tell you." Umm really???????

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

She said her car has been broken down for 3 weeks and she can't do anything about it.

If she hasn't had transportation for three weeks, how did she manage to get the bottle of the meds in the first place? Around here, you can only get 30 days' worth at a time....

If we could invent a way to just work with our patients/clients/students and not have to deal with any family members, we could patent the method and be filthy rich!!!!

[NanaPoo]

A KINDERGARTEN teacher brings an unmarked gel capsule to me today and says it was in her student's pocket. The student says "my aunt put it in my pocket and told me to take it this morning. It's for my coughing & sneezing."

It is lunchtime at this point so I told kiddo to go to lunch & let me call her mom to check on said pill. So I call mom who, of course, doesn't answer. Mom apparently needs to screen her call then call back. When she calls back 2 minutes later she says, "yes, that's her multi-vitamin. Please give it to her."

Ummm, no thank you. I'd rather not give a random, found in a pocket, unmarked capsule to a 5-year-old. I have 1 thing I frequently use: a brain. And another thing I'd like to keep: a nursing license.

Good Lort, people.

[NanaPoo]

3rd graders comes to clinic with stomach ache 3x today. Gave Kid's Pepto chewable once but after his 3rd visit, mama gets a call to pick him up even though this kid has no fever, no vomiting, no diarrhea. He's just disrupting class time and driving the nurse crazy at this point.

So, mama just arrives and says, "so you guys don't have any anti-spasmodics like Hyoscyamine you can give the kids back there?"

Oh, there I go again forgetting to dispense from my full pharmacy of scheduled and non-scheduled medications in the back room. I keep forgetting about my prescriptive powers. Dayum!

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

Oh, there I go again forgetting to dispense from my full pharmacy of scheduled and non-scheduled medications in the back room. I keep forgetting about my prescriptive powers. Dayum!

Such a slacker!!! Tsk, tsk, tsk!!!!

[evelynkarirn, BSN, MSN, RN]

The world will not stop spinning on its axis if a kid does not have their ADHD med the first day of school.

SMH

I have a parent who has "diagnosed" her child as having ADHD and Autism, and treats his conditions with tinctures prescribed by a self-proclaimed naturopath - when we contact her with questions (to complete a health assessment associated with an IEP) she tells us it is "none of our business." She declined elaborating or completing a food questionnaire (none of our business) because "he never eats school food." Two days later he ate a school breakfast and she flipped out. Interestingly, he did not turn into the Hulk or have any negative reaction.

[evelynkarirn, BSN, MSN, RN]

I've had a bunch of these this year!!! I have a set of parents (split custody)where one says the child isn't allergic and doesn't need anything, one parent says they are......I told them to send in an MD note to clarify...

mc3:cat:

i have a split custody kid w/IDDM whose parents dose him differently - he's always low or high depending on which parent he's been staying with. I told them both that I will dose him according to MD orders - not popular with either of them.

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

i have a split custody kid w/IDDM whose parents dose him differently - he's always low or high depending on which parent he's been staying with.

Holy crap, talk about playing Russian Roulette with your kid's life!!!!

[zombieghoast]

Um... I live around Chicago and we TOTALLY have mosquitoes. Lots of them. The city is on a freaking lake.

I live in the Chicagoland area too. I would say our mosquitoes are actually the worst!