Leading from Behind

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Specializes in school nurse.

Recently had to submit some paperwork to the School Health Unit at our DPH. Normally they do not allow emailing documents (requiring snail mail or faxing) but are now requiring email as that staff is not going into the office. Mind you, our state Department of Education has forbidden any districts from doing remote learning this year.

So, let me get this straight...

Fully-vaccinated, mask-competent school health officials who can also easily socially distance in the office don't go INTO the office to stay safe, but it's okay to decree that staff and kids can go into a situation where the distancing rules have been lifted and not everyone is even eligible to be vaccinated. (Not to mention that there are also students who are not capable of staying masked...)

Way to show leadership!

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Specializes in School Nurse. Having conversations with littles..

I am so sorry-

Wow. Is putting it lightly. The waters are so muddied. It is hard to know what to do next sometimes. 

 

I am just so sorry that is sounds like your situation is wearing on you badly.

 

Hugs to you-

a.

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Specializes in school nurse.
8 minutes ago, Cattz said:

I am so sorry-

Wow. Is putting it lightly. The waters are so muddied. It is hard to know what to do next sometimes. 

 

I am just so sorry that is sounds like your situation is wearing on you badly.

 

Hugs to you-

a.

The kicker is that I have no problem whatsoever working in person. It's the hypocrisy/cowardice that truly frosts my cornflakes...

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Us campus nurses have been thrown to the wolves! 

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Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.
21 hours ago, Jedrnurse said:

The kicker is that I have no problem whatsoever working in person. It's the hypocrisy/cowardice that truly frosts my cornflakes...

This is so true. Our Dept. of ED refused to mandate distancing and one of the principals in our district elected to not make staff adhere to the strong recommendations the health staff made. We ended up quarantining an entire class because the waters were so muddy (no mandated distancing, but no changes to the close contact definition). And guess who yelled at our nurse leader for sending the kids home? The Dept. of ED.... 

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Specializes in school nurse.
On 9/21/2021 at 8:46 AM, k1p1ssk said:

This is so true. Our Dept. of ED refused to mandate distancing and one of the principals in our district elected to not make staff adhere to the strong recommendations the health staff made. We ended up quarantining an entire class because the waters were so muddy (no mandated distancing, but no changes to the close contact definition). And guess who yelled at our nurse leader for sending the kids home? The Dept. of ED.... 

Wow. What state is this?

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Specializes in School Nursing, Public Health.

sounds like Oklahoma

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Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.
17 hours ago, Jedrnurse said:

Wow. What state is this?

You'd be surprised! MASSACHUSETTS!

We are going to try and get our SC to vote in 3ft to prevent this from happening again....

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Specializes in School nursing.
On 9/21/2021 at 8:46 AM, k1p1ssk said:

This is so true. Our Dept. of ED refused to mandate distancing and one of the principals in our district elected to not make staff adhere to the strong recommendations the health staff made. We ended up quarantining an entire class because the waters were so muddy (no mandated distancing, but no changes to the close contact definition). And guess who yelled at our nurse leader for sending the kids home? The Dept. of ED.... 

I ended up considering an entire classroom close contacts myself because of no distancing. I don't hate no distancing (these are MS kids and distancing policing was a nightmare plus we can't fit 27 kids in a classroom even at 3 feet honestly and we have to because we don't have more space), but my Department of ED told me I should "rarely have to consider an entire classroom a close contact." Haha! I'm ignoring that and don't care.

It does mean more work for me but I feel better about it. I'm also in MA, so I can use Test and Stay. Did means I ran 80+ BinaxNOW tests last week alone due to one case in a classroom just to be safe. (Luckily they were all negative.)

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Specializes in school nurse.
49 minutes ago, k1p1ssk said:

You'd be surprised! MASSACHUSETTS!

We are going to try and get our SC to vote in 3ft to prevent this from happening again....

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, as my original beef is about the hypocrisy of state officials in...Massachusetts. ?

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Specializes in NICU.

What a mess we have!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.
On 9/24/2021 at 8:56 AM, k1p1ssk said:

You'd be surprised! MASSACHUSETTS!

We are going to try and get our SC to vote in 3ft to prevent this from happening again....

Crazy!  And I saw on the news that they extended the State mask mandate for schools to 11/15 BUT that school districts can opt out IF they have >80% vaccination rates.  I know my own district will continue to do the right thing, but the district where my kids attend will happily opt out as we have a big vaccination rate.

On 9/24/2021 at 8:59 AM, JenTheSchoolRN said:

Did means I ran 80+ BinaxNOW tests last week alone due to one case in a classroom just to be safe. (Luckily they were all negative.)

We had a few kids in TTS turn + two days after consecutive - tests ?

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