Dealing with parents with attitudes when it comes to policy

[SnugglePuggle]

This has been a rough week for me dealing with parents who cop an attitude....

My school has a 3 night school trip coming up with 100 students participating. This means that I have to obtain Medication Permits for all daily medications that students take at home in addition to the medications that the parents wants the student to have available to them "just in case", such as ibuprofen. I sent letters home 1 month in advance and set a deadline for turning in Permits and medications, 1 week in advance. Here we are 2 days away from the trip and I am still getting Permits. Generally not a problem except when the physician fills the Permit out incorrectly and I cannot except it. I got a Permit today with 6 medications listed (I made it very clear - One permit per med) , no dosage or frequency. I got another one that simply said "Allergy Pill". Really!?! I explain the the parent that the forms must be filled out correctly, as there can be no gray zone when administering medications. And I get "but it is just for yadda, yadda, yadda and it's over-the-counter". I has a parent stare me down when I explain that Suzie-Q cannot keep her Adderall in her purse. Hum.....

I also have Permits with no meds - Some parents just want to drop them off at 9pm Friday night when the bus leaves. Unacceptable. As the school nurse I need to approve all medications to be administered, sort medications by bus, compile Medication Logs, etc. This takes some time people!!!

Do you all have similar parental resistance when trying to enforce School Medication Laws and Policies? How you you deal?

[mycsm]

leaves the nurse and district open to major litigation....for no reason other than complete laziness on the parents side.

[SnugglePuggle, MSN, RN]

Can I add to the title of my original post "and physicians"? I received a voice mail this morning from the nurse of the physician who crammed 6 meds on one medication permit with no doses or frequencies indicated. Mind you this is 3 weeks AFTER the trip and 4 1/2 weeks after I made the request by FAX that the Medication Permit situation be corrected (I FAXED the original submitted permit, a blank permit and instructions). The nurse explained on her voice mail that the reason they did not complete 6 forms was because they only received one blank form via FAX. Could I please FAX them 5 additional blank forms? My non-spoken response "My apologies as I mistakenly assumed that your office had the ability to make additional copies of the blank medication permit" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Mental note - Avoid this medical practice at all costs.