Seems like many staff members are unaware of the definitions of emergent or urgent when relaying info from the field. For example getting hit in the throat is not a neck injury nor is a scratch on the head a head injury. A stomach ache after running or bleeding from a minor laceration should not be verbalized in a way that makes me clear the office and run.
I get it that they are not medical people but geez the PE teachers did take A&P for Petes sake and should know some basics since they are also health teachers.
So, I've started putting together a training manual defining emergent, urgent, and non urgent issues and about how to communicate those issues with the school nurse.
My question to you all is do you train the staff to communicate potential emergent or urgent issues correctly and completely? Do the staff bother to listen? Do you have the same issue? Just wondering.
On a slightly different, yet related "emergency" note, I cannot convince some parents that the ED is NOT a doctor's office. Your child's 100.1 degree temp with a cough does not need to go to the ED. I called you early enough in the day to get your child seen by your PCP, recommended that vs. the ED, you agreed to call the PCP (who has a clinic for walk-ins), and had someone picking the child who could take them to their PCP. Yet I find out the next day instead you took your child to the ED where they told you your child had a virus and sent said child home and said child was fever free and back in school the next day.
It is so annoying when i get called for a mystery emergency which is either a. complete nonsense (student couldn't walk until i appeared, then it was like Reverend Louie's Miracle Hour Jesus let him walk again!!!)
I finally put the hammer down on the "need a wheelchair" nonsense. I reminded playground personnel and the coach that even in the NFL they don't generally wheel injuries off the field in a w/c. if they CAN walk, they SHOULD.
It got to be ridiculous. It seemed the kids liked the attention that an emergent call to the nurse and wheelchair ride provided.
Since taking a stand on this, I have not been called out once to bring the wheelchair. There is a time and place, but common sense must prevail.
A few years ago I was called to the bicycle rack right before school started. I swear that my clinic is at least a mile from the front of the buliding. I grab my stuff and my wheelchair and head that way with 1200 students coming the opposite way down the hall. FUN TIMES!
Get out there and I see nobody in sight, so I get on the radio and ask about it - DEAD SILENCE!!! I head the mile back to my clinic and there is the kid (and his dad) as well as about 5 other kids waitig in there for me.
All of that for a dime sized superficial knee abrasion. Boy,was I ******!!!!
Most of my staff are really good about deciding what is an emergency or not....especially during my 30 minute lunch. I will shoot fire out my eyes if they open my door for a kid with a headache or stomachache. I also don't run anywhere. I will walk fast but not run. If I run and fall causing myself to be injured then I am of no use to the person who needs me. There isn't anything that makes me run like my hair is on fire. I can speed walk pretty fast. lol
If I had a dollar for every time someone said "come quick someone is throwing up"- That will never get a come quick from me.
Right???? And I always wonder what the expectation is? What will I do once I arrive that will improve the situation? After the student is done, have him/her walk to my office. Same thing for "Someone threw up on the bus!!! Get the nurse!!" To do what..... ?
Right???? And I always wonder what the expectation is? What will I do once I arrive that will improve the situation? After the student is done, have him/her walk to my office. Same thing for "Someone threw up on the bus!!! Get the nurse!!" To do what..... ?
Teachers think vomit is the plague. I always get calls that say something like "such and such student is vomiting in the bathroom." Okay, great. Send them my way when they are finished. I'm not going to be able to do anything until then and I doubt the last thing a HS kid wants is for me to walk into the bathroom while their head is in the toilet and say "are you okay?"
Yeah- I get the "So and so is VOMITING!!!!!! IN THE BATHROOM!!!" a lot. One of these days I want to freak out as much as everyone else does, just to see what happens!! "O.M.G!!! Not VOMITING!!!! AAAAHHHHHhhhhhhh..." (That's me running down the hall screaming...)
Yesterday I had a TA bring a special needs 1st grader to me at dismissal because he was crying while holding his belly. In a panic, she says, "I think he has appendicitis, should we call 911???"
Miraculously, he was healed after spending a few minutes on the toilet.
Yesterday I had a TA bring a special needs 1st grader to me at dismissal because he was crying while holding his belly. In a panic, she says, "I think he has appendicitis, should we call 911???"
Miraculously, he was healed after spending a few minutes on the toilet.
Like the song from Scrubs says "everything comes down to poo."
If I had a dollar for every time someone said "come quick someone is throwing up" - That will never get a come quick from me.
JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN
3,035 Posts
On a slightly different, yet related "emergency" note, I cannot convince some parents that the ED is NOT a doctor's office. Your child's 100.1 degree temp with a cough does not need to go to the ED. I called you early enough in the day to get your child seen by your PCP, recommended that vs. the ED, you agreed to call the PCP (who has a clinic for walk-ins), and had someone picking the child who could take them to their PCP. Yet I find out the next day instead you took your child to the ED where they told you your child had a virus and sent said child home and said child was fever free and back in school the next day.
This happens more times than I wish.