How to deal with noncompliance parents with student with lice?

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Specializes in Pediatrics, home health, school nursing.

Hi there

I have questions about nurses who work at a school district pertaining to lice. My district has this policy where we CANNOT SEND HOME student with lice involved. My site is full of students with lice and most the families here are poor income based. Any school nurse or LVNS out there, how do you deal with a situation like this? For me is stressful because teachers are constantly on back to send them home and they know the policy when if comes to lice. My RN told me that if student has really bad case of lice in where you physically see them crawling all over the place, I can send them home. But other than that kiddos have to stay. My biggest problem is that some parents are noncompliance. And i kind of understand them since some cant even afford the lice kits. Can any of you give me suggestions or pointers on how to deal with non-compliance parents on following up on tx?

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

Do you exclude for poison ivy until it is deemed all oils are off the skin? I know it sounds stupid, but it REALLY is the same thing. It is a nuisance, not a health issue. Now to address your issue, a $10 lice comb, some education and two weeks of time can clear a whole family. No expensive kits and strong chemicals.

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It really depends if they are non compliant as is not treating at all and not doing a thing about it, or treating and thinking they used the shampoo and that is all they have to do. I don;t even recommend the shampoo most of the time, as combing is really what gets everything out. If it is a TRUE case where the parent is doing nothing about it, not even combing, this is cause for reporting for neglect.

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Specializes in School health, pediatrics.

Not a health issue. Now, what you can do, is have the parents fill out a med frm for you to do a treatment and nit combing in the clinic. But that seems like a waste of time if your district does not exclude based on live lice. Which, by the way, is the right policy to have. Excluding students with lice is ridiculous.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.
OhioBPH said:
Not a health issue. Now, what you can do, is have the parents fill out a med frm for you to do a treatment and nit combing in the clinic. But that seems like a waste of time if your district does not exclude based on live lice. Which, by the way, is the right policy to have. Excluding students with lice is ridiculous.

The problem is the whole family is most likely infested, making this a temporary fix at best. It may motivate the family to do something about it, though.

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Specializes in Peds.

This lice thing is a thorn in my side! To answer your question, perhaps you can offer services from a local charity to help with the cost of treatment. I work with a local children's charity and they will pay for treatment if the cost is the concern with the parent. They will also pay for the student to attend a lice salon so that the treatment is done properly and the combing is complete.

To vent a little though..... my district just changed their policy last year to go back to the dark ages of lice detection in school. We now must exclude the student and do entire class checks if one is found. This change came about due to one parent's persistant complaint. Not evidence-based practice at all!!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Tele, School Nurse, EMT/FF.

Our school has a policy where you do not send them home if found during the school day. That being said after they do go home they are not to return until some form of proof of treatment is provided (receipt of kit purchase, note from lice treatment center, prescription or doctors note). Now the proof may not mean they actually used any treatment but I would hope if they spend the money then they would use it. But like someone said, it is a nuisance more than a communicable disease. Just keep educating. Also see if any pharmacies or doctor offices want to donate lice kits.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
MHDNURSE said:
It really depends if they are non compliant as is not treating at all and not doing a thing about it, or treating and thinking they used the shampoo and that is all they have to do. I don;t even recommend the shampoo most of the time, as combing is really what gets everything out. If it is a TRUE case where the parent is doing nothing about it, not even combing, this is cause for reporting for neglect.

Since the CDC does not consider head lice to be a threat to health in any way - no CPS is going to act on it. CDC has classified headlice as normal human flora and for the record they don't carry any diseases nor do they jump from head to head. We deal with a lot of head lice in the psych hospital and our facility is currently looking into the CDC recommendation they we neither treat or exclude persons with head lice from the milieu.

I know they're gross but it's not a big health emergency!

Hppy

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