Parents sending kids to you before the bell

[loveschoolnursing]

This is my first year of school nursing. And I have had several students coming in to see me before the bell rings in the morning saying.....my mom wants you to look at my throat and tell me if I can stay. Some parents walk in and ask if their child should stay. I repeat POLICY OVER AND OVER AGAIN....and sent out a flyer with the policy at the beginning of school and AGAIN right before winter started.

Do you get a lot of this before school? How do you handle this?

[KLBlowers]

I've Been A school Nurse for 3 years, and yes I have had those same visits. Still do, but not as much since we printed this paragraph in the Nurse's flyer note;

"The school Nurse's role is not to diagnose any medical problems; this is the role of your family doctor. The Nurse is here to treat illnesses or injuries that occur during the school hours."

When I do get a "before the bell student" now, I just give the student a copy of the Nurse's letter with that paragraph highlighted.

Hope this helps in your dilemma.

Katlu

[rbytsdy]

3 weeks ago I had a child arrive carrying a plastic bag to vomit in. Her guardian sent her in with it. Our hall monitor sent her right to my office. What are people thinking???

Oh, and she did vomit within 5 minutes of walking into my office.

[kidzcare]

3 weeks ago I had a child arrive carrying a plastic bag to vomit in. Her guardian sent her in with it. Our hall monitor sent her right to my office. What are people thinking???

Oh, and she did vomit within 5 minutes of walking into my office.

Good lord.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

3 weeks ago I had a child arrive carrying a plastic bag to vomit in. Her guardian sent her in with it. Our hall monitor sent her right to my office. What are people thinking???

Oh, and she did vomit within 5 minutes of walking into my office.

I will say I once had a situation like this. Turns out kid gets extremely carsick and commute to sick that morning with traffic filled and very stop and go. Kid did vomit once in school shortly after arriving, but was fine after being out of the car for about 20 minutes. Mom was very apologetic, however, and explained.

Now every other time I've had a kid arrive to school telling me they vomited at home just before leaving school AND their parent was aware...

[fetch, BSN, RN]

This morning had a child who is new to this school, has a history of truancy issues, and has seen me 3 times in 2 weeks for homesickness. Well she walks in before announcements have even started, accompanied by the teacher's aide, who tells me that when the student was told "you can't go straight to the nurse, you need to try and do your morning worksheet first" she flew into a full fledged, jumping up and down, screaming temper tantrum!

And what was the complaint? Sore throat.

[SchoolNurseTXstyle]

I call the parent every time and I just have this tone in my voice that conveys to the parent how annoyed I am!!!! I feel like the more inconvenience that is caused to the parent, the better outcome for me.

[SnowyJ, RN]

I have started calling parents more often if a child comes to see me right off the bus.

One thing I don't do anymore is share my phone with kids. If a Parent wants to talk to them, I have the child call them back on a different phone. This perplexes parents who can't understand why I won't share my phone with potentially sick kids. (Is that really a hard concept to understand?)

Learned that hard lesson the first year as a school nurse when I ended up with strep. No sharing!

[mamahuff]

HA HA....that is Awesome!!!

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

I have started calling parents more often if a child comes to see me right off the bus.

One thing I don't do anymore is share my phone with kids. If a Parent wants to talk to them, I have the child call them back on a different phone. This perplexes parents who can't understand why I won't share my phone with potentially sick kids. (Is that really a hard concept to understand?)

Learned that hard lesson the first year as a school nurse when I ended up with strep. No sharing!

i had a parent who seemed genuinely surprised when she asked to speak to her child and i offered my speaker phone as their option. I don't like getting sick either.

[Farawyn]

i had a parent who seemed genuinely surprised when she asked to speak to her child and i offered my speaker phone as their option. I don't like getting sick either.

Great Idea. I have been sick a few times and I never get sick.

[kidzcare]

I am constantly using antiseptic wipes on my phone! ICK!

[GmaPearl BSN RN]

I've been using the hands free (speaker) option on my phone for about 10 years now when kids or parents want to converse. No one has ever questioned this and I do not get sick nearly as often!