Dealing with Our First COVID Quarantine - Siblings!

[jnemartin, BSN, RN]

TLDR: If you have a student who is quarantining because they are a close contact, do you send their siblings with no contact with COVID+ person into quarantine as well? A sibling in school who was not in contact is getting bullied. 

We have a student A who was a close contact with a positive. Student A is quarantining, NO symptoms, tested neg 5 days after contact but obviously continuing full 14-day quarantine. student A's sibling was not in contact with the positive. At home, they are separated. Sibling is getting bullied by peers for being at school. Per our state guidelines, sibling can be in school (unless Student A develops symptoms or tests positive), so sibling is not doing anything wrong. 

I was NOT expecting the bullying backlash. I am considering that in future cases all siblings must go home, just for this reason. Thoughts?

*(small private school, everyone knows everyone's business, the parents knew the whole story even before I did... they just don't understand how determining "close contacts" work)

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

Ugh  that's awful. I bet underneath they are afraid... doesn't excuse their behavior. May be time for some small group counseling with data driven information. Guidance? Administration?

[jnemartin, BSN, RN]

On 10/7/2020 at 5:58 PM, NutmeggeRN said:

Ugh  that's awful. I bet underneath they are afraid... doesn't excuse their behavior. May be time for some small group counseling with data driven information. Guidance? Administration?

Some are afraid, some are just Mean Girls. ? I made a little contact tracing activity to help them understand how this works and I'm presenting it in some of the advisories, other teachers may do it on their own. 

It's so hard because I can't say TOO MUCH and violate the students' privacy! 

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

Mean girls are the worst...

[amoLucia]

OP - totally off the point, but what is TLDR mean? I don't know a lot of shortcuts.

As if your job wasn't tough enough, but then to deal with the bullies!

[jnemartin, BSN, RN]

4 hours ago, amoLucia said:

OP - totally off the point, but what is TLDR mean? I don't know a lot of shortcuts.

As if your job wasn't tough enough, but then to deal with the bullies!

"too long didn't read" version (TLDR) ?

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

37 minutes ago, jnemartin said:

"too long didn't read" version (TLDR) ?

Always learn something new at AN!

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

UGH. I'd say kids are the worst sometimes, but I can't say that without acknowledging they learned that behavior, and often from a family member...

But interestingly, I just talked through a similar situation with my local DPH. Except one child attends my school and their sibling that was exposed (and has tested negative, but completing full quarantine) attends another. On that end, I actually dealt with more staff concern vs other student/family concern, which did and didn't surprise me. 

[SchoolNurseK, BSN, RN]

I just spoke with our DOH about a similar situation.  Both siblings were exposed four days before the person became symptomatic and tested positive.  This of course does not make them contacts.  However, one sibling woke up with a "headache" and I cleared the second sibling to come to school.  Turns out first sibling was actually having sore throat, congestion, and a headache.  SMH!  Sent sibling two home immediately and both were tested.  Both came back negative.  The guidance I later received from DOH is that if one sibling is having two or more COVID-like symptoms, all siblings should be kept home.  In this case, only h/a was shared with me, so I didn't have all the information I needed to make an appropriate decision.  I am now checking for siblings when I go through our daily call-outs and I will send siblings home if needed.  As the DOH person said, you have to put the puzzle together and then act once you've figured it all out.  It just seems like the puzzle keeps getting bigger by the day!

[GdBSN, RN]

32 minutes ago, SchoolNurseK said:

 It just seems like the puzzle keeps getting bigger by the day!

All my puzzles seem to be missing pieces. ?

 

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

I spoke to my doh about this very thing.  I haven't had (knock wood) and real interaction with present students and contact with covid +, but I have had an abundance of sending one sibling home and the parent asking what to do about the other siblings in school.  I don't love the guidance, but as I seem to say a dozen times a day, these are orders from above:  They say that siblings do not HAVE to be quarantined unless also symptomatic.  Certainly, this does not take into account the number of asymptomatic spreaders or those who just haven't shown anything yet, but I guess all we can do is see how it plays out.  In the meantime, I keep reinforcing the idea that  I would not knowingly allow any covid 19 + persons to remain in school.  

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

Another small private school nurse here.  Yes, our policy is that if a student is being quarantined then their sibling may not be at school.  The idea is that since a person can be contagious up to 2 days before being symptomatic then there is a chance we're spreading it across the school without realizing.  The other idea is that small private schools are breeding grounds for these rumor spreading situations.

We've actually had our first positive case and have had to quarantine an entire class in one grade level.  During the other class in that grade level's lesson yesterday a child shouted out "That class isn't in because Johnny Smith has COVID!"  First off, it's not Johnny that has COVID.  Secondly, this is a concurrent class so all the at-home kids (and their parents) heard that.  I was told the teacher shouted "We do NOT talk about anyone's medical information.  That is like passwords and addresses.  It is private, and we will not talk about it anymore."  I was told right away because we expected the rumor mill to start spinning. 

I think your situation needs to be handled as a disciplinary issue.