Parents who wanted your job...

SaltineQueen · Oct 23, 2018

No. But if she's got a similar job now, what's her beef? Is her child in your school? Hopefully your school doesn't house many grades & little precious will be moving along soon. I would let your admin know what's going on but at some point I may feel it necessary to confront her somehow. Do your job well & there should be no validity to her craziness.

Guests · Oct 23, 2018

That sounds awful. We were in a similar position a couple years ago where a parent applied for a PT nursing position at our HS campus and the admin there asked me to be present at the interview, as well as the current FT nurse. The interview seemed to go fine. Afterwards, I asked the HS nurse her impressions and she tells me "If they hire that woman I am quitting. She is a parent of two of our current HS and MS kids and is hostile, non compliant and very aggressive". Thankfully we got a more qualified candidate but she definitely has been sour grapes ever since and I am thankful I don't have to work with her since I am in the ES building.

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2018

Anybody here experienced retaliation from a parent who wanted your job? I'm 7weeks in at my new position and have had one parent in particular who has given me a hard time since day one... From vaccine record disputes to wanting calls home for inane reasons...
Come to find out she applied and interviewed for my position (and another SRN position in the district about 5 years back) and didn't receive offers for either job. She now works as a 1:1 nurse at one of the other district schools and very closely with that school's RN.
I often worry about this with regards to conflicts of interest and issues of trust... Anyone out there experienced this?

YIKES! Have you elevated this to the nursing director? Because I've had nurse parents who want to tell me how to do my job but NOTHING like that. Document the stuffing out of all of it. Call erry dang time. Hang in there.

k1p1ssk, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2018

I have discussed it with the other school's nurse (who has her own issues with this person) as well as our district nurse leader. There are other issues as she is not a "school nurse" but she has our contract (and is therefore salaried) but somehow gets away with not coming in when her 1:1 is absent or if there are PDP days, etc. We don't really want her to come to our nurse meetings and therefore are hesitant to bring this up to our superintendent... She was not invited to join the union, however.

She has 2 kids in my school, and one in the high school, and she used to be a school nurse in another district, so right there, she should know how a health office runs, and should know when paperwork needs to be turned in, so this was my first inclination that she was playing me.

This last incident was a call a week after the "incident" occurred...

Her: "Why didn't you call when little Timmy was vomiting at school?"

Me: Well, he wasn't vomiting, he regurgitated his snack milk. He told us he missed breakfast (in Kindergarten, hardly up to him to make sure he eats before school IMO), and when snack time came around he chugged his entire chocolate milk and immediately regurgitated it. I evaluated him, held him in the office for 15mintues, all the while he's complaining how hungry he is, and when he tolerated 12oz of water, I sent him back to finish snack with a plan in place that if he seems off in ANY way, shape or form (whether he is complaining or not), I would have called, as I don't want a kid actively vomiting at school. But one time with no other symptoms and an explanation doesn't really warrant him missing school!"

To which she replied "Oh, well you made the right call, he wasn't sick" :banghead:

I legitimately feel like she only called to try and pin me against a wall. Because why even call to ask about it if you are glad I didn't call that day?

I think time will tell how this all plays out. It sounds like there are other issues, so she may just be an angry person in general and I'm an easy target.

Farawyn · Oct 23, 2018

I have discussed it with the other school's nurse (who has her own issues with this person) as well as our district nurse leader. There are other issues as she is not a "school nurse" but she has our contract (and is therefore salaried) but somehow gets away with not coming in when her 1:1 is absent or if there are PDP days, etc. We don't really want her to come to our nurse meetings and therefore are hesitant to bring this up to our superintendent... She was not invited to join the union, however.
She has 2 kids in my school, and one in the high school, and she used to be a school nurse in another district, so right there, she should know how a health office runs, and should know when paperwork needs to be turned in, so this was my first inclination that she was playing me.
This last incident was a call a week after the "incident" occurred...
Her: "Why didn't you call when little Timmy was vomiting at school?"
Me: Well, he wasn't vomiting, he regurgitated his snack milk. He told us he missed breakfast (in Kindergarten, hardly up to him to make sure he eats before school IMO), and when snack time came around he chugged his entire chocolate milk and immediately regurgitated it. I evaluated him, held him in the office for 15mintues, all the while he's complaining how hungry he is, and when he tolerated 12oz of water, I sent him back to finish snack with a plan in place that if he seems off in ANY way, shape or form (whether he is complaining or not), I would have called, as I don't want a kid actively vomiting at school. But one time with no other symptoms and an explanation doesn't really warrant him missing school!"
To which she replied "Oh, well you made the right call, he wasn't sick" :banghead:
I legitimately feel like she only called to try and pin me against a wall. Because why even call to ask about it if you are glad I didn't call that day?
I think time will tell how this all plays out. It sounds like there are other issues, so she may just be an angry person in general and I'm an easy target.

Your explanation to her was way too long.

He didn't really vomit, just spit up a bit, he rested and was fine to go back.

She sounds like a real PITA. Good luck!

k1p1ssk, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2018

I honestly kept adding to my explanation every time I could hear her trying to get a word in edgewise. I could tell she was looking for the weak link in the story to tear it apart. I was just covering my bases!

pedi_nurse · Oct 23, 2018

Off topic... Your district hires 1:1 nurses? Any 1:1 nurses we have are hired by the parents/insurance. We will not provide 1:1 nursing care, though we do give tube feedings, catheterization, etc.

Farawyn · Oct 23, 2018

I honestly kept adding to my explanation every time I could hear her trying to get a word in edgewise. I could tell she was looking for the weak link in the story to tear it apart. I was just covering my bases!

I know. Don't do that. It's okay. We got you.

Off topic... Your district hires 1:1 nurses? Any 1:1 nurses we have are hired by the parents/insurance. We will not provide 1:1 nursing care, though we do give tube feedings, catheterization, etc.

Ours, too.

k1p1ssk, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2018

They do! I think it's a part of their 504, so the school has to provide all accomodations. In this case, the family has two girls with very complex, degenerative diseases and they pay for one of their nurses (out of the goodness of their hearts) and the school district pays for the other (the nurse in question). These are total care kids...

SugarHigh · Oct 26, 2018

They do! I think it's a part of their 504, so the school has to provide all accomodations.

This, This. This.

It's a federal law (as long as your school receives federal funding). If the student needs accommodations to be at school and be educated and these accommodations are in their IEP or 504, whether it's a school nurse on campus, PT, temperature regulated bus, or even a 1:1 nurse, the school must provide the service at no expense to the parent.

It doesn't matter if the school does not currently have that service available or if it is expensive. It must be provided or the school can lose federal funding. Parents often sue school districts over this.

LikeTheDeadSea, MSN, RN · Oct 26, 2018

I know. Don't do that. It's okay. We got you.
Ours, too.

A rule of thumb for insurance companies is if the parent works and will be needing nursing services year-round when the student is not in school, they'll provide 1:1 services for the school day because it's how to get nurses consistently on schedule so benefits everyone.

If a parent stays at home in the non-school hours (ie: Parent is a teacher and has similar days off to student so doesn't need nursing provided during summer/holidays) the insurance company will pull the nursing hours during the school-day because they are getting savvy and know the school district will have to provide services in some way. For some districts, a building in others, (ie: hefty nursing need MDS rooms) a district utilizes a classroom nurse or 1:1 hire.

Hope this gives a good "why". This has been explained to be by numerous families I've worked with who have had job changes and gain/lose services