most gross and sad situation

annie.rn · Oct 16, 2014

I'm not a school nurse so I apologize for busting in on this thread. That breaks my heart! How do you intervene as a school nurse? Do you try to work w/ the family first or do you go straight to getting CPS involved?

NutmeggeRN, BSN · Oct 16, 2014

Ugh...poor kiddo!

OldDude · Oct 16, 2014

This was a relatively common occurrence when I worked nights in the ER. Usually in the middle of the night after the kids had been asleep for a while. The child would wake up with the roach, or other bug, in their ear, start crying, and the parent would bring them in. On some occasions, the roach would crawl out when you shined the otoscope light in their ear. It's very scary for the kids, though.

Wave Watcher · Oct 16, 2014

Bless his heart. :-( Ear pain can be awful and hard to manage for child. Hopefully, his parents will take him to have the roach removed. Otherwise, there is going to be another big issue.....medical neglect.

Last year I had a student (4th grade) come to school with large apple juice container. She said she was drinking it for breakfast. Shortly after the bell rang the teacher sent her to my clinic. The student had a belly ache and said the juice smelled funny. Well.....it was urine. Her mom had placed that bottle in her bedroom for her little brother to pee in at night when he would wake up because he was too scared to go to the bathroom and I guess mom was too lazy to get up. The student grabbed it on her way out the door (why she would take juice from a bedroom instead of the refrigerator is beyond me)....mom saw the container and did not stop her. Anyway, I called mom....she knew right away what I was going to tell her.

I had a good talk about not leaving anything out that could possibly harm the student or her little brother if they eat/drink it. Mom was embarrassed and asked me not to tell the student what was in the bottle. So, I didn't say what it was....I just told the student the juice was spoiled and to come back to me for any issues AND to ask mom before she grabs anything else out of her bedroom. Bless her heart.

The student was fine but I could have thrown up. :-(

bell1962 · Oct 16, 2014

ugh both of these situations are disgusting...

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Oct 16, 2014

The situations that we see and experience with some kids... :no:

jlha · Oct 16, 2014

The counselors and administration have been working on all the situations with this family.

Farawyn · Oct 16, 2014

That's sad. The poor kid.

I have never seen a cockroach in anyone's ear but in the hospital we found a lot of strange things inside people.

I love looking in ears, throats, etc. I had a conversation today with an 8th grader whose mom is a nurse and she said she looks at her mom's computer history and her mom looks at tons of ear wax extractions on YouTube! I want to meet her mom!

Alnitak7 · Oct 17, 2014

This was a relatively common occurrence when I worked nights in the ER. Usually in the middle of the night after the kids had been asleep for a while. The child would wake up with the roach, or other bug, in their ear, start crying, and the parent would bring them in. On some occasions, the roach would crawl out when you shined the otoscope light in their ear. It's very scary for the kids, though.

I think there are ways that a patient's family can handle these problems without bringing them in. There are times when bringing someone in takes too long or is not feasible, so there needs to be some discussion about home remedies for bugs in someone's ears. I have both seen and heard of children like this being treated at home by their parents with ear drops.

Thimbalina · Oct 17, 2014

When I was working in ER the doctor came out of the room and randomly announced that there was a cockroach in the kids ear and to please lavage it. He had left the door open though and one of the new grad nurses literally screamed. SCREAMED. So, I went in to do the procedure and the boy (teenager) was literally in tears… big kid, almost an adult, who slept on the floor every night because he was poor, living in a poor neighborhood and didn't have a safe place to lay his head at night. He hung his head in shame. You could totally tell he heard that nurse's reaction (I think she also said a few other things like 'OMG! GROSS!' It broke my heart… So just be careful what you say within earshot of your young patients. They don't like the situation they are in any more than we do… it is embarrassing and they know it… poor guy. I will never forget him. It wasn't his fault that his parents didn't or couldn't provide him a safe bed at night.

JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN · Oct 17, 2014

When I was working in ER the doctor came out of the room and randomly announced that there was a cockroach in the kids ear and to please lavage it. He had left the door open though and one of the new grad nurses literally screamed. SCREAMED. So, I went in to do the procedure and the boy (teenager) was literally in tears… big kid, almost an adult, who slept on the floor every night because he was poor, living in a poor neighborhood and didn't have a safe place to lay his head at night. He hung his head in shame. You could totally tell he heard that nurse's reaction (I think she also said a few other things like 'OMG! GROSS!' It broke my heart… So just be careful what you say within earshot of your young patients. They don't like the situation they are in any more than we do… it is embarrassing and they know it… poor guy. I will never forget him. It wasn't his fault that his parents didn't or couldn't provide him a safe bed at night.

This. While not as gross, I had a student come in with what appeared to be insect bites all over his right lower arm. I know his situation was not great as another administrator was already working on other options for the student and parent as they were staying in a very crowded shelter. When I asked him when they first appeared, his eyes shifted down and he told me there were spiders in his bed.

I knew this wasn't his fault and we were already trying the best we could to help him get out of the situation, so I just smiled and set him with a supply of topical hydrocortisone for the itching and some long sleeved shirts for sleeping and followed up with administrator/counselor at school. It was important for him for me to not make a huge deal in my public office at that moment, even though I was sad and a bit grossed out inside...