Lice, Lice and more Lice...

[Bulldogs, CNA, EMT-B]

I'm over it.... How do you handle reoccurring cases in the same family?

[BunnyBunnyBSNRN, ASN, BSN]

Years ago I dealt with the same thing. I finally just started keeping hair ties in my desk and when one of the teachers would send in one of the girls, I would pull their hair up into a bun and tell them to make sure not to share jackets, etc with their friends. I would send home the lice letter and call the parents at the end of the day. If I got any backlash, my response was that the girls education was way more important than lice.

[jess11RN]

We actually got to a point where our district paid for an entire family to be treated at a salon. We then asked them to stay out of their house for a minimum of 24 hours after they were treated so that the lice would die off.

We wouldn't have done it just for any case, but the kids had already missed 3 weeks of school at that point. It was awful!

[teaNhoney]

1 minute ago, BunnyBunnyBSNRN said:

Years ago I dealt with the same thing. I finally just started keeping hair ties in my desk and when one of the teachers would send in one of the girls, I would pull their hair up into a bun and tell them to make sure not to share jackets, etc with their friends. I would send home the lice letter and call the parents at the end of the day. If I got any backlash, my response was that the girls education was way more important than lice.

Do you sent the lice letter to the entire class or just the parents of the student?

[OldDude]

Fortunately our school doesn't exclude for head lice. I send the state mandated notification and forget about it.

[scuba nurse, BSN, MSN, RN]

If there are recurring cases in the same family they are clearly not doing all they can to get rid of it, meaning they need to wash sheets, towels, bedding, clothes, vacuum really well.....etc. I guess just more education to the parents and telling them what they need to do. They may also need to use a different product on the hair, or go to a place to get rid of it.

I do not send out letters to entire classes, it just creates panic.

[BunnyBunnyBSNRN, ASN, BSN]

On 1/18/2019 at 10:29 AM, teaNhoney said:

Do you sent the lice letter to the entire class or just the parents of the student?

Just the student

[BunnyBunnyBSNRN, ASN, BSN]

On 1/18/2019 at 10:35 AM, scuba nurse said:

If there are recurring cases in the same family they are clearly not doing all they can to get rid of it, meaning they need to wash sheets, towels, bedding, clothes, vacuum really well.....etc. I guess just more education to the parents and telling them what they need to do. They may also need to use a different product on the hair, or go to a place to get rid of it.

I do not send out letters to entire classes, it just creates panic.

The letter i had at the time included information about washing bedding in hot water, vacuuming, etc

[Bulldogs, CNA, EMT-B]

We still have a no nit policy and I get constant backlash from teachers about leaving students in class. My principal is pretty adamant about sending them home. My problem is getting parents to pick up

[jess11RN]

We don't send letters home in our elementary school unless there are multiple cases within a classroom.

[BunnyBunnyBSNRN, ASN, BSN]

Not that you are going to win this one, but have you tried educating your staff about lice and the fact that the AAP doesn't support exclusion?

"Some schools have "no-nit" policies stating that students who still have nits in their hair cannot return to school. The American Academy of Pediatrics and National Association of School Nurses discourage such policies and believe a child should not miss or be excluded from school because of head lice."

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/from-insects-animals/Pages/Signs-of-Lice.aspx

[Bulldogs, CNA, EMT-B]

I have talked about this till I am blue in the face................I don

3 minutes ago, BunnyBunnyBSNRN said:

Not that you are going to win this one, but have you tried educating your staff about lice and the fact that the AAP doesn't support exclusion?

"Some schools have "no-nit" policies stating that students who still have nits in their hair cannot return to school. The American Academy of Pediatrics and National Association of School Nurses discourage such policies and believe a child should not miss or be excluded from school because of head lice."

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/from-insects-animals/Pages/Signs-of-Lice.aspx

Yep I have talked about the recommendation till I am blue in the face. I dont think this is something I alone will change in this district.