No, I'm Not a Beauty Shop!

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I should probably preface this post with some facts.......It was 3pm, I had just about EVERY frequent flyer in my office, I hadn't eaten my lunch yet and I just sat down to eat when in walks one of my frequent flyers with an earring in her hand. She is in 1st grade and says ,"yeah I can't get my earring back in". So I reach in my drawer and pul out an envelope for her to put her earring in and she says ,"no! I want it back in my ear". No please, no manners....so I say no, hunny,i'm a nurse not a beauty shop. Put it in the envelope, your mom can put it in when you get home. I had a kindergarten child in my office with the para for that room and the para looked at me like OMG. So I said to her, "I'm sorry but I will take them out for gym because it is a safety issue and the gym teacher doesn't have time to deal with it but putting them back in? That is NOT a nursing reponsibility and shame on the teacher who sent her to me!" Why do I have to put her earrings back in? Isn't the teacher capable? We have a no earrings in PE policy so my feeling is that if the student cant put in their own earrings then they shouldn't wear them on gym days. Now of course I feel bad......

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You did the right thing - you shouldn't feel bad at all, I would have done the same thing in your place. Go home, and then somebody can help you with the earrings.

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No need to feel bad. That teacher was wrong to send her to your office in the first place.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

Good for you, you have boundaries! People need to stop thinking of Nurses as personal servants/waitresses. If you put her earring back in her ear, you would be spending much of your shift/days at work performing non-nursing duties and responsibilities because the teachers would think of your office as a dumping ground. Besides, the teacher felt she/he was either too busy or too professional to put the earring back in the child's ear. Did he/she do the wrong thing?? BTW, I had an Elementary teacher who used to put my barrettes back in my hair while we (my peers and I) waited in line. I never once thought to go see the school's Nurse for something so trivial. Do not be sad, you did the right thing.

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I agree with you but by time you finished explaining that to her you could have had her earrings back in.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.
I agree with you but by time you finished explaining that to her you could have had her earrings back in.

if they're easy to replace, i usually just pop them back in for this very reason - it takes so much longer to rationalize to a teacher and student why you won't put the earring in. if i meet any resistance at all, in an envelope it goes and RTC.

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I also think you did the right thing. It's not so much the time it takes to put an earring back in as much as it is setting a precedence. I've learned the hard way that doing a little "favor" one time can quickly turn into "the nurse does that". Next thing you knnow, you will see ten kids a day who need their earrings put back in. Hang in there!

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I agree, it may take more time the to tell a child/teacher the first time your rationalization for not replacing the earring, but it will save you countless visits in the future from kids who are being sent down to your clinic to replace their earrings. I know I'm way too busy in my clinic to have a line of children backed up in my office waiting on their earrings to be put back in.

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The only part of this story i question, is why so annoyed over this very small child asking for help? Or, if you are annoyed at the teacher, who knows, the teacher might have thought the child's ear piercing will close up, who knows what the teacher thought.

If such events will annoy this much, maybe you'd do well to send a memo to the teachers, "I won't help small kids whose earrings have fallen out." or something.

Me, i've done tons of things, that didn't fall under "nursing", so long as i had time, and felt the activity was not harmful. Most of these extras --took only minutes.

...tons of things, that were just lil "extras".

and actually, i think it's the doing of small extras that please me the most, really, even more than the "basics" outlined in my job description.

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Speaking from my experience with school nursing, I have to agree with OP. I don't think it's a matter of being annoyed by a child asking for help. I have been in at the end if the day with a line of kids still waiting, rushing to get them out to their bus, only to have to spend another hour charting after everyone leaves. Besides, if her piercing site gets infected, guess who will be blamed.

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true, maybe it wasn't OP who sounded exasperated or annoyed, but, maybe remarks like //" People need to stop thinking of Nurses as personal servants/waitresses."// seemed to have a tone of annoyance, imo, but, perhaps i am misinterpreting the tone as annoyance.

That whole "WE are nurses!! Professionals!! WE are not there to serve" attitude,

is pretty common type of tone or attitude i see a lot on AN, most every day, almost. So often, that i tried to present another point of view on that type of thinking: https://allnurses.com/general-articles-about/caring-doing-small-808011.html

but, i guess everyone has a right to their own point of view about spending time complaining

~or~

being able to carve out a minute or two here or there to do a small thing, (IF it is not harmful) as a stress-reducing move for the NURSE herself.:)

and it is debatable, if replacing an earring could be harmful, it could be, if nurse forced it or whatever, damage could be done! Which is a valid point.

but, that's not egggggzactly my point, though.

but, maybe not every nurse feels inner pleasure from doing lil extra "above and beyond" kinda things. but, some do. I loved this story: https://allnurses.com/nurses-rock/a-phone-call-808567-page3.html#post7124329

and obviously, we do not always have that extra minute to do small "above and beyond" things. Usually, most "extra" things take only minutes.

but, if i could be a god of some type, and could remove the inner feeling of stress or even annoyance(sometimes, it IS very very overt annoyance, or even anger)

that seems to be in the hearts of so many nurse when asked to do a "non-nursing" thing, i'd remove that feeling, if i had that power. I actually think caring, and doing small "above and beyond" things, REDUCES one's stress level, makes your day go better, not worse,

imo.

Obviously, if the earring wouldn't slip in, don't force it! Or, if it is just too hard to do, like some closed-hoop-style earrings would def be beyond me to put into an ear!

or if the nurse felt uncomfortable to replace an earring, or if she is just too straight-out busy to help with that non-nursing issue,

or if just tons of kids are lining up every day for help with earrings----- that's a problem! Not one i can picture getting exasperated or annoyed over,(?) but,

maybe this should be addressed in a memo to teachers about helping little kids whose earrings have fallen out, to prevent this from happening again.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Not a school nurse, but I heartily agree with the OP. And sending the earring home in an envelope *may* impress upon the parent that earrings need to stay at home on PE days.

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