Experiences with ECC staff

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

At the risk of generalizing, has anyone noticed that ECC staff tend to be a little bit more...high strung and, dare I say it, demanding?

Experience seems to be bearing this out for me...

[k1p1ssk, BSN, RN]

I'm assuming ECC is early childhood class?

Ours ebb and flow. If one kid is out for a couple days for illness, for the 1-2 weeks after, I get asked to do temp checks several times a day, on otherwise healthy seeming kids. The excuse is always "They felt warm" or "They didn't eat much lunch" - never anything concrete like complaining of headache or tummy ache, coughing, etc. I've literally only found a fever once during these checks in the 3+ years in this building. But do they ever pass on information from the parents about health issues? Nope. Also, never seem to think to pass along other concerning information, such as a student urinating 10-15x per day.

What bugs me the most is that they insist I drop whatever I'm doing and rush to the classroom to do whatever bidding they like. I know it's like herding cats in those classrooms, but there are 2-3 adults in that room, and only 1 of me. You can't have a para walk a student to the HO for a 30sec. temp check? 

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

3 hours ago, k1p1ssk said:

I'm assuming ECC is early childhood class?

Ours ebb and flow. If one kid is out for a couple days for illness, for the 1-2 weeks after, I get asked to do temp checks several times a day, on otherwise healthy seeming kids. The excuse is always "They felt warm" or "They didn't eat much lunch" - never anything concrete like complaining of headache or tummy ache, coughing, etc. I've literally only found a fever once during these checks in the 3+ years in this building. But do they ever pass on information from the parents about health issues? Nope. Also, never seem to think to pass along other concerning information, such as a student urinating 10-15x per day.

What bugs me the most is that they insist I drop whatever I'm doing and rush to the classroom to do whatever bidding they like. I know it's like herding cats in those classrooms, but there are 2-3 adults in that room, and only 1 of me. You can't have a para walk a student to the HO for a 30sec. temp check? 

Yes, that's what ECC stands for in this neck of the woods. I'm noticing the "drop whatever I'm doing attitude" as well, in addition to bringing every runny nose in as if it's a gunshot wound. We do pooled COVID testing and if we excluded every small child for a runny nose, ECC would shut down.

Also, as much as I'd like to, I haven't discovered a cure for the common cold.

 

[k1p1ssk, BSN, RN]

Yup. We have a few kids whose noses run constantly, but only when they have their masks on (my theory is that the humidity within the masks from their breath is causing otherwise dry mucus to loosen and drip), and the teachers don't want them in school at all until their symptoms are gone - despite having spent many many days home and having received negative COVID testing. These kids also happen to be non-verbal and carry neurodivergent diagnoses, which means it's difficult for them to keep their masks on to begin with. I didn't think I was going to have to go here, but the complaints didn't stop until I pointed out to the teachers and head of our ECC program that this smelled an awful lot like a civil rights violation - trying to exclude a student with autism for not wearing a mask... Not surprisingly, when you put it into that context I stopped hearing about it. I've encouraged those families to communicate with me directly as they may get inaccurate information regarding exclusion otherwise. So far, so good....

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

On 10/22/2021 at 1:15 PM, Jedrnurse said:

 bringing every runny nose in as if it's a gunshot wound.

 

OMG if this doesn't perfectly describe school nursing to a tee, then I don't know what does!!  Officially borrowing this phrase from you, @Jedrnurse!!

[MHDNURSE]

Our ECC staff are super high maintenance. They also need to be managed with kid gloves.  Since we all returned to in-person instruction way back in fall of 2020, all schools were instructed to use cell phones to text the nurses and not send kids to the nurse without notifying the nurse first.  At our ECC this has ow become several texts a day for every little thing.

[arlingtonnurse]

How interesting.  Yes, my ECC teacher is quite anxious and perhaps needy and particular as well.  I thought it was just her but maybe it's the population (none of her three assistants are but I wonder if she does enough micromanaging for all of them).

[MHDNURSE]

38 minutes ago, arlingtonnurse said:

quite anxious and perhaps needy and particular

This is pretty much our entire ECC staff.  Most are older women who have been there forever so they are also not at all good with new staff, change, etc., etc.  They have been doing things a certain way for 30 years + and refuse to change.