Inappropriate to ask teachers to stop sending kids after a certain time?

[Scorchednurse]

School gets out at 330. Yesterday I had 24 kids sent to my office after 3. We have to document quite a bit about every student that comes in. Every single one was headache/stomachache. Today...19 after 3. Ok if someone has some bleeding mess, loses consciousness, is a diabetic, walks home and seems legitimately ill then fine...but I'm thisclose to sending a mass email saying look if a kiddo says oh my head hurts or my tummy hurts and there's 30 minutes left of the day let's use common sense and say ok lay your head on your desk for a few minutes and tell your parents when you get home. Especially when I've already sent them back twice that day. Or am I being nit picky? So I end up staying hours over to actually do documentation and paperwork. They always send them with their backpacks too basically getting them out of their hair for the day. so I waste snacks and drinks trying to placate tired, hungry, grumpy kids...and have to do vitals and document the time, their complaint, my assessment, my interventions, and their response. Then if I have a kid until dismissal I have to treat it like a send home and do extra documentation. Really teachers?!?

[OldDude]

Our middle school did send and email and told the teachers at the beginning of the year during a staff meeting that the Health Room hours were from 9:00-3:00 (school was open from 8:45-3:25). We explained that the times before/after those were for kids with medications, our diabetics students, and emergencies only. Emails were sent throughout the year to gently remind teachers. If a kid showed up outside those times, we would ask them why they were there and decide whether or not they would stay. We did turn kids away- headache, vague stomach ache, random pain with no swelling or sign of injury- and remind them that they were about to go home and that there was nothing we could do for them. The early birds were told they could call home if they felt that badly, or to go to class and if they needed to come back during open hours, please do. Most didn't come back.

A few years ago we tried a thing called "Prime Time." The first hour of the school day was considered "prime time" for teachers to prepare their students for the day and vice versa...it lasted about 2 days before the FFs wore them down and that idea went by the wayside.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

A few years ago we tried a thing called "Prime Time." The first hour of the school day was considered "prime time" for teachers to prepare their students for the day and vice versa...it lasted about 2 days before the FFs wore them down and that idea went by the wayside.

Sounds about right.

[lvnforschool]

Ive had my fair share of being called out at the end of the day maybe 5-10 minutes before school is out to assess a kid. I always do it with a smile, and when I get home I tell everyone how annoyed I really was to check a temp on a student on a FRIDAY at 3:05 pm when school gets out at 3:10. WHY? Because never let them see you "sweat"! I always do my job at work no matter what even for the nonsense things because you just never know.

[guest940422]

indeed! i may inwardly (and sometimes outwardly!) roll my eyes but if a kid says they feel sick, hot, chills i check their temp. I get enough calls from parents from kids I never even saw that day. Why make it harder on myself? Same goes with icepacks. They don't leave my office, so the kids don't get a trophy to show the rest of ther class. if the terrible injury from "bumping their arm in the desk" (the horrors! someone queue up Lifestar) is bothering them enough for ice, them put it on there. I have to chart the visit anyway. Ice is already clicked off in the template. Usually they are done with the ice before I'm done with the chart. It beats getting the irate parent calling and tearing me up for not giving them some ice for their traumatic boo boo.

LMAO In nursing school I did a school nurse rotation for a week in my Pedi clinical. When I got to the school, the first thing she did was have me make 30 ice packs because it was "kick ball day" in PE! She told me they couldn't take them back to class for the same reason, but she made disposable ice packs on kick ball day because she didn't like having to clean the good ones after.