Parent Pick-Up of Sick Kiddo

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How long do you give parents to pick-up their sick kiddo? I am going on one hour with a student with terrible diarrhea. I've called Mom and Dad. Mom said she would be an hour and a half. No. Dad told me 40 minutes. No.

44 minutes ago, SchoolNurse91 said:

I'm a single mom, so I don't have the comfort of a dual income. The sad reality is a dual income is needed. It's not always greed. It's necessity. I'm almost at the point where I need two jobs.

I worked with nurses who had to have two full time jobs to pay their mortgages and support their families because their husbands wouldn’t even work one job. These ladies came from a different country. They said their husbands put up excuses for not looking for work, such as poor English skills. We talked frankly about this during our lunch breaks (night shift!) and several said the men needed to get off their high horses and work at Mickey D’s if necessary to help their families.

2 Votes
Specializes in School Nursing.
11 hours ago, Godsgirl73 said:

What happens when the backup plans fail? Please know that I'm not at all trying to be antagonistic. I'm sincerely asking. Or, what happens when the school staff do not, despite a note on your child's file, call the number that you have advised them to call while you're at work? I'm not sure what else to do in those situations, so am thankful that I have only had the one experience I posted about earlier in this thread.

There are always times when the best plans fail. The only time that bothers me is if the situation is a true emergency (broken bone, asthma attack, 104 and rising temp). The office not checking your child's file were definitely at fault here, since you left a work number and they failed to bother to check.

2 Votes
Specializes in School health, Maternal-Newborn.

Sometimes it's just a matter of communicating with me. I had a parent who answered and said someone would be right over. The geography of the district means that could be up to half an hour. So after 90 minutes I called and parent said "I'm just getting done work and I'll be right over." No apology, nothing like that. I would have appreciated a follow up call that said "Well my back up didn't work out, I'll be over about 12:45 to get Suzie." Then I could've tucked Suzie in for the wait.

3 Votes

Just today, called a mom for a kiddo with an earache/headache looking pretty rough, especially for a 1st grader. Mom said that it would take about 15 minutes to wrap up her meeting and another 25 to get to the school, 50 minutes tops. No problem! Kiddo colored and napped. Mom arrived, realized that there was no one way to make it home and back in time to see her son's band concert (in my building, 30 minute performance), so I offered mom/kiddo the cot in my spare room. Mom snuggled her and made a doctor's appointment. I kept the kiddo while mom attend the concert, no biggie, happy to help. I just need communication and I can be infinitely helpful.

9 Votes
18 minutes ago, BeckyESRN said:

Just today, called a mom for a kiddo with an earache/headache looking pretty rough, especially for a 1st grader. Mom said that it would take about 15 minutes to wrap up her meeting and another 25 to get to the school, 50 minutes tops. No problem! Kiddo colored and napped. Mom arrived, realized that there was no one way to make it home and back in time to see her son's band concert (in my building, 30 minute performance), so I offered mom/kiddo the cot in my spare room. Mom snuggled her and made a doctor's appointment. I kept the kiddo while mom attend the concert, no biggie, happy to help. I just need communication and I can be infinitely helpful.

I get thank you’s from my present extended care home health parents. I was thoroughly surprised one day when I realized this and thought about how good it makes me feel to hear those two little words. Now they could improve on the other aspects of communication but a thank you makes up for a lot.

3 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care.
On 2/24/2020 at 7:34 AM, lifelearningrn said:

The role of parent doesn't pause from 0730-1500. Sick children belong at HOME, not at school. Nurses aren't in schools to take care of children with acute, contagious illnesses so their parents can work undisturbed.

A child with a high fever needs to be picked up as soon as possible. Sometimes parents are an hour away, and that is fine. But there are times where 3 hours later, and fever still rising and the child suffering, and the parent is no where to be found.

I can't really agree that having a job is really the same as putting the role of parent on pause, I'd argue that having a job and income is actually part of the responsibility of being a parent.

It's a bit presumptuous to assume that a parent who doesn't have the type of job where they can leave on short notice is only not picking up their kid so they "can work undisturbed", many if not most jobs don't come with that sort of flexibility.

Ideally, parent(s) have someone waiting on the wings who can take the kid on short notice, but that's not always an option, whether that option exists can be do to lack of effort, but often it's just not something that the right circumstances exist for.

Kids are going to get sick at school, and the immediate availability of family at any time for every kid is unrealistic, I don't know that I agree that complaining about the unavoidable reality is the best solution to the problem.

3 Votes
Specializes in IMC, school nursing.
On 2/27/2020 at 5:30 PM, MunoRN said:

many if not most jobs don't come with that sort of flexibility.

Nursing DOES come with that flexibility, and my wife and I show it. As stated, we have put our promotions and ambitions on hold so that a parent is available all the time. Sorry, people in AN have NO excuse to not be available beyond personal selfishness.

1 Votes
Specializes in School Nursing.
On 2/27/2020 at 4:30 PM, MunoRN said:

I can't really agree that having a job is really the same as putting the role of parent on pause, I'd argue that having a job and income is actually part of the responsibility of being a parent.

It's a bit presumptuous to assume that a parent who doesn't have the type of job where they can leave on short notice is only not picking up their kid so they "can work undisturbed", many if not most jobs don't come with that sort of flexibility.

Ideally, parent(s) have someone waiting on the wings who can take the kid on short notice, but that's not always an option, whether that option exists can be do to lack of effort, but often it's just not something that the right circumstances exist for.

Kids are going to get sick at school, and the immediate availability of family at any time for every kid is unrealistic, I don't know that I agree that complaining about the unavoidable reality is the best solution to the problem.

Its been stated over and over on this thread that communication is the key. We don't send kids home unless they are SICK (fever, explosive diarrhea, copious vomiting, FLS, etc.)

There should always be a direct way to contact a parent. Can't make it for an hour? That is FINE (unless an ER visit is necessary) as long as you communicate with the nurse. If you sent your kid to school knowing that he or she was running a fever, or had been vomiting all night, and then make yourself unavailable for the next 8 hours, than we have a problem. Sadly, that is a common problem.

School is for CHILDREN to learn. It is not free daycare.

5 Votes
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