It felt wrong...

Specialties School

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Specializes in School Nurse, past Med Surge.

Sent a kid home first day of school. Fever, stomachache & nausea. Likely not COVID but what if... Thankfully mom was cool with the situation. This year is going to be so hard. ?

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Just curious- when did he start getting sick/fever? Only at school?

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Our district is using these questions for parents to check off before sending students to school.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

It IS going to be so hard. As you know, sometimes parents err on the side of "my child is a drama queen" and then have no choice but to be cool when we call. Well, they do have a choice so glad the choice was cool!

But you're used to this - fever, nausea....yeah, we got that all the time last year. And the year before that. And the decade I've been doing this....

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Sent one home yesterday less than an hour into the first day. Vomiting and headache but no fever. I'd be willing to be it's not COVID but our state hasn't left us any room for judgement ? Mom was upset (not mad, just frustrated as she knew random, vague symptoms would send her kids home) but understood. We'll see how many kiddos I see today...

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2 hours ago, KeeperOfTheIceRN said:

Sent one home yesterday less than an hour into the first day. Vomiting and headache but no fever. I'd be willing to be it's not COVID but our state hasn't left us any room for judgement ? Mom was upset (not mad, just frustrated as she knew random, vague symptoms would send her kids home) but understood. We'll see how many kiddos I see today...

Our first day is Monday. I'll bet we'll have some vomiting from nerves. Our site manager told me in our preschool (4 classes, about 60 kids) we had at least 1 vomit a day. And I'll never forget the preschooler a few years back who vomited at the SIGHT of ranch dressing.

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Specializes in School Nurse. Having conversations with littles..

Annnnd ready or not.... heeeere weeeee goooooooooo! ?

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Specializes in School Nursing, Pediatrics.

And this is what I hate about this whole thing! EVERYTHING is symptom! And teachers are going to freak out if a kid so much as coughs in their class, even if they have known seasonal allergies. It is sad, truly, we are not going to be able to use our nursing judgment, basically everyone who complains of anything will get to go home and have a free pass to skip school.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.
On 8/13/2020 at 10:00 AM, nursetlm said:

Our district is using these questions for parents to check off before sending students to school.

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how is this being implemented? Are parents expected to turn in a form with theirkids every day or is this a list for home and don't send in with these symptoms / honor system type of thing?

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Honor system- same with employees. I wanted to add “or close contact with someone who has a pending COVID test” but to not avail. ? We were also told to continue with the 24 hour exclusion rule- like we do every year. I don’t think we will be open long. ??‍♀️

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
On 8/22/2020 at 10:40 AM, nursetlm said:

Honor system- same with employees. I wanted to add “or close contact with someone who has a pending COVID test” but to not avail. ? We were also told to continue with the 24 hour exclusion rule- like we do every year. I don’t think we will be open long. ??‍♀️

YEEESH. Honor system. My least favorite system.

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Specializes in School Nurse.

I'd have sent the kid home even before COVID. I wouldn't feel bad.

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