do I tell the other school's nurse?

[Sudsy]

I work in a private (religious) school with a significant population of people from a country where having lice is regarded very casually. My school is strict about its no lice or nits policy.

I have a family in the school with three children who all came w. a LOT of nits. The family just moved to this country and I'm sure the parents are overwhelmed w. unpacking and getting the kids settled in, but I have not seen the daily decrease in nits that I was hoping for (in order to get the elementary child to make it to class on the first day I asked them to come back after I finished checking all the other students [my school requires a 'no nits' letter from the nurse to be admitted to class....], and I then picked through her hair for 1.5 hours to get her nit-free.....This was after her mom said she had used a lice treatment product and "spent hours" combing through her hair.)

Anyway, this family has three older children at another private religious school a mile away. That school also has lice checks and I am pretty stunned that the children at that school passed, based on what I see in the heads of the kids at my school. I know the school nurse there a bit and am wondering if there is a way to drop her a hint about maybe she should look at this family's kids again to recheck? I told the mom at my school that she needed to recheck her older kids and she said she would, but she could just be telling me what I want to hear

I know I can't call and say,"you should recheck the Smith family", but is there anything I could/should do?

Thanks so much for any input. I have only had a week on the job and want to do things correctly :)

[safarirn]

And you KNOW that these transferred students actually EXPOSED these students by their mere presence in the other school building?

Really? Be careful here.

[Sudsy]

In the case I originally posted about, it was siblings, three in my school and three in the other school.

[safarirn]

Ahhh. I apologize. I forgot what the original post even was & had to reread it! I thought this was a family that transferred to a new district & you wanted to tip-off the other nurse.

I was wrong. I think I got 2 topics mixed up. Sorry!

[Sudsy]

No problem :). Nice to have a response, in any case!

[Kim O'Therapy, BSN, RN]

Interesting f/u: I've been reading "School Nursing: A Comprehensive Text" and on p. 608 it says "When it is known that students in one school have possibly exposed students in neighboring schools, the school nurses for those schools should be notified".

What does your school policy say? Unless the older siblings' school is somehow connected with or chartered with your school, I would have to place HIPAA before passing along any information. If the parent were to become angry over the shared information, she/he may have a good case. :argue:

[Sudsy]

My school has almost no policies about anything! Love the place, but I'm really starting at ground level.....

[missfixit]

I am by no means an expert on this topic, but I think student's medical information mostly falls under FERPA regulations. I am sure HIPPA applies in some instances as well.

Anyway, as I understand FERPA- information that needs to be shared to insure a student's safe attendance can be shared on a need to know basis.

Therefore, I do not think head lice would potentially affect the student's safety, so I would not share the information with the other nurse.