Morning Tylenol

[WineRN]

My boss keeps telling me I'm getting baptized by fire into school nursing.

We are going through a influenza outbreak, roughly 10 confirmed cases of both A and B EACH.

I sent home 12 kids today after their morning dose of Tylenol wore off.

Twelve.

Parents just don't get that their little angel is still spreading germs everywhere even if they take Tylenol. When I call, they act like I'm crazy for not letting them take another dose and send them back to class.

And all of my teachers are wonderful, but hypochondriacs. I've taken all of their temps at least once. Lol

[Cattz, ADN]

I will be the DD...unless there is something tasty and peach flavored.

I will re-post my letter on the EXACT thing!! ? (go figure..right?) A neighboring school liked my letter so much that they tweaked it a little and sent it to their parents (with my permission). One of my secretaries told me I am "famous"

**Haha..not hardly**

1/26/2017

Dear Parents-

Over the past few weeks we have had several kids come to school feeling just barely well enough to stay at school. In general, we usually ask them if they had medicine at home that morning. It is very alarming, and happens pretty frequently, that we can determine that they most likely had Tylenol or Ibuprofen. This only reduces their temperature temporarily, but DOES NOT, reduce the risk of passing their illness to others.

We, of course, want students to miss the least amount of school as possible. However, we also know that students best recover from illness at home.

*** For the safety and well-being of students and adults: prior to school, please do not give them fever-reducing medications (Tylenol, Advil/Motrin, or any single ingredient or other combination over the counter cold/allergy medications that contain acetaminophen or ibuprofen.) Students must be fever-free for 24 hours without use of the above medications to attend school.***

Our current outbreak of illnesses cannot be contained without the cooperation of all families.

As a school, we are doing our part in increasing disinfecting of common surfaces, encouraging all to cover coughs/sneezes with elbow, and sending kids home who have a fever over 100*, and are exhibiting symptoms of illness, according to protocol and policy.

If you have any questions or concerns about your child's health, I would love to visit with you.

Sincerely,

Have a great weekend FRIENDS!!

[foggnm]

That is a lot of cases in a single school. Did you contact the local health department and/or notify parents about access to flu shots?

[GmaPearl BSN RN]

Great letter Cattz. Very similar to the one I have been sending for years.. They just ignore it, dose em and send em out to infect the rest of the school. Sigh

[WineRN]

We sent out a similar letter and the health dept is involved. Two local private schools closed on Friday due to influenza outbreaks.

[DEgalRN]

WineRN said:

We sent out a similar letter and the health dept is involved. Two local private schools closed on Friday due to influenza outbreaks.

Oof, that's crazy!

[Amethya]

I hate when parents do that. I call them back and they're like, "Can't you give them another dose?" "No ma'am, I'm not allowed to. We have a school policy that dictates that we are not allowed to distribute medications to students UNLESS we have a signed permission slip from both doctor and parent. So once again, come get your child because they have a fever." They finally agree and they come get the kid, but it's like REALLY?

[Amethya]

Just today I got another kid that mom packed a whole bottle of Tylenol because the kid got fever yesterday and it went past my jurisdiction. It was the end of the day, and all the kids were leaving, I told the little girl that she needs to tell her mom because she's going home right now and I can't do anything for her right now, mom was mad that I sent her home like that, but it's like, you were outside waiting for her, she can tell you she's not feeling good. I explained to the mom I can't give her medications anyway, and the only thing I can do for her is just lay down. So I rather send her home than have her lay in my bed with a fever, so I told the mom my policy and that if she can come get the medication at the end of the day. She understood, but she was upset that the child was crying because I didn't do anything, but it's like I can't do anything.

I had to write a letter for Friday Mail, telling the parents not to send medication with the students, so I can avoid having to call parents for this again and to understand that if the child has a fever, please don't send them to school for at least 24 hours until the fever goes down.