New student with T1D- mom no-showing to our meetings

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.

Just need to vent. New student to our school starting next Tuesday. He had T1D, is 6 years old, in first grade. This is our first T1D kid, so naturally, there is a lot of planning and prepping we are doing before he starts. I had one meeting with mom last week and specifically told her to bring me all of the paper work from her endocrinologist after the appointment, including the Diabetes Medical Management Plan, emergency plan, etc. He has no 504 in place from his previous school. I had coordinated a meeting with our AP, SPED, Counselor and me to go over everything yesterday. I stayed late for the meeting and she no-showed. I called her and she apologized profusely and we rescheduled for 8:00 am today. It is now 8:54. She is not here and now isn't answering my calls and texts. The whole group was gathered again waiting for her. School is already in session so it is VERY hard to get those folks together. I am very frustrated. I have to do a training for the teachers tomorrow and spent several hours of my free time yesterday afternoon preparing the presentation, researching, etc. I have likely spent about 10-15 hours prepping to receive this student. Part of me hopes she just has cold feet and goes back to his old neighborhood school, but the other part of me would be so mad that I wasted all of this time if he ends up not coming...

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I feel ya. I spent HOURS meeting and planning for a severe peanut allergy kid. Long story. VERY anxious mother and a 504 plan that was several pages long only to have the kid enroll in a different district. :banghead:

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.
I feel ya. I spent HOURS meeting and planning for a severe peanut allergy kid. Long story. VERY anxious mother and a 504 plan that was several pages long only to have the kid enroll in a different district. :banghead:

Yeah, part of me wants him to just not come at this point, and the other part would be so mad if he doesn't.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

off topic - how do you text a parent? I get a lot of requests from parents that i communicate this way and dang it i can't figure out any way but to use my own phone, which i'm not inclined to do.

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Specializes in NCSN.
off topic - how do you text a parent? I get a lot of requests from parents that i communicate this way and dang it i can't figure out any way but to use my own phone, which i'm not inclined to do.

Don't do it!! Some of the other nurses in my district started to for their medically fragile kids, and it turned into a slippery slope.

All communication about a student technically should be a part of a students record, and I don't know how you would print a text message.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
off topic - how do you text a parent? I get a lot of requests from parents that i communicate this way and dang it i can't figure out any way but to use my own phone, which i'm not inclined to do.

Ugh. Boundaries. Some people don't have them. I insist on keeping my work and personal lives separate and that goes for who gets my personal phone number.

I've never been asked to text but have been warned by other school nurses I've worked with to never to call from my personal phone. I communicate via note, email or phone call from my office phone. If someone is insisting and the administration wants me to do it I'd be requesting a work cell phone for this purpose.

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

The only parents I text are my T1D kiddos, and the parents who I was already friends with before starting this job. I do wish our computer system had a way to text parents, I even asked about it once. It would be neat to be able to click one button after charting and it send a text to the parent of the visit note. This would be especially helpful for those parents who insist on being notified of EVERY visit.

If someone invents this technology, make sure you let them know it was my idea so I can get a slice of the pie!

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Specializes in School nursing.
The only parents I text are my T1D kiddos, and the parents who I was already friends with before starting this job. I do wish our computer system had a way to text parents, I even asked about it once. It would be neat to be able to click one button after charting and it send a text to the parent of the visit note. This would be especially helpful for those parents who insist on being notified of EVERY visit.

If someone invents this technology, make sure you let them know it was my idea so I can get a slice of the pie!

That technology would be awesome!

I text one parent of one of my T1D students, but draw the line there. The parent doesn't abuse it and I also put in my visit note that I texted parent and what I texted.

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Specializes in school nurse.

We are assigned IPhones to use for school communication with parents. (Of course we have the office landline as well.)

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I use Google Voice to send texts. It's awesome! I get the texts right into my email. You should look into it. It's totally free and has helped me out since parents don't always like to answer a call from the school.

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Specializes in School nurse.
off topic - how do you text a parent? I get a lot of requests from parents that i communicate this way and dang it i can't figure out any way but to use my own phone, which i'm not inclined to do.

My T1D's have my personal number, which is regrettable but necessary'given the sheer volume in my office. They don't abuse it but I will be looking into this google voice thing. I did get the school to issue me an iPad for the dexcoms though.

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Last year I had 2 T1D kiddos and had a heck of a time getting parents to communicate changes in orders much less show up for any meetings. Heck they wouldn't even answer the phone when the kids had extreme highs or lows and needed to go home!! This year it was so nice to walk in for the first day and see record requests from other schools for these 2!! Merry Christmas to me in August! (Seriously I do still worry about both of them every day, they were not stable at all. )

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