Medical Tx vs. First Aid

[k1p1ssk, BSN, RN]

I had a 5th grader come to me and explain that over spring break, she woke up with a severely swollen eye and they went to the eye MD and were told to have her use a hot pack (and yes, she specified a hot pack, and specifically NOT a warm moist compress on her eye once per day for 10 minutes for 10 days and so she was here to do that.

No redness, swelling, drainage; No stye that I could see... Nothing. And I might add, I have no note from parents or the MD on this matter.

I ask her why she couldn't do that at home and she explained that she will be at dance until 10pm tonight......

I essentially shut it down and told her she needed to do this at home, as IMO this would fall under a "medical treatment" that sounds like it was ordered by a doctor and without written notification from her MD, it is not a treatment I am authorized to do by my nursing judgement (and if I were, there are ZERO qualifying symptoms).

She of course looked at me like I had 4 heads.

I have a number of issues with the situation and am just wondering what y'all would have done. Caved to her strange request or stand your ground?

I think I'm going to call her Mom and just explain my concerns just to cover my bases, though....

P.S. - just spoke with Mom, and sure enough, she had already explained all of that to the student and told her NOT to come see me for it..... ?

[RatherBHiking, BSN, RN]

You were right! I don’t allow anything that can be done at home at school like that without a dr’s order.

We had a girl once whose mom said she twisted her ankle over the weekend and she should be allowed to come and sit in the nurse’s office for 20 min every couple hours with her leg propped up with ice or heat (to just alternate) on it and then wrap it. I’ve had kids with broken limbs before not require that much intervention at school. I was like no way, we need a dr’s order if she needs that much help. Well she never went to the dr, they just read that off the internet. LOL! I told them if she was having that much trouble she should see a dr and get a diagnosis and dr excuse for gym and activity restrictions. Sure enough it wasn’t THAT bad and she was able to play just fine the next day. ?

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

Yes...this is a case of the kid wants something but does she NEED it and do you have to provide it? Good call on the call to mom. Whenever a kid asks for something out of the ordinary I usually call parent and repeat verbatim what the kid is requesting. Either the parent throws the kid under the bus or they can't understand why I can't/won't provide something that's against my best nursing judgement...