tomn13

@ cid1 -- would you do any sort of physical assessment? Listening for bowel sounds, abdominal pain/tenderness/guarding, blood pressure, etc?

@ NutmeggeRN -- Definitely have an MD order; wouldn't be administering anything without one. @ cid1 -- a standing TID order. She receives exlax at 8a, noon (That's mine), and 6p. And yes, definitely a signed, real, full order from an MD. So I wouldn't say it's "Give no matter what" because, as an example, if she came to my nurse's office and the staff was like "LOL she keeps pooping blood, time for ex-lax?" I'd say heck no. FYI for clarity; this is a school for children with disabilities. Not that this is directly important, but it could answer some questions that haven't been asked yet.

Hi -- I am a School Nurse for a respite program that runs every other week. Something interesting happened the other day that I didn't really ever think about and then had a philosophical debate with a nursing-friend over... I wanted to come here for more opinions. I have a student, aged 8, who receives ex-lax (Chocolate Squares) three times a day: Once during school hours. Nearly every morning when the child is dropped off, the mother verbally confirms with me that I'll administer the ex-lax. And, without fail, I administer the ex-lax. Another Nurse had to administer the ex-lax recently, and before administering it she listened for bowel sounds and took the child's blood pressure. My colleagues at the school thought it was the strangest thing. I defended the nurse for doing this action that I don't do. After all, I do suppose it's more correct to do that kind of assessment. I don't want to engage in a philosophical conversation here, exactly, but I'm just curious As a school nurse, would YOU listen for bowel sounds for the administration of a tid ex-lax?

I just want to take a moment and say thank you to everyone for sharing your stories and advice. Now that 24 hours have passed from the 'panic meeting' that set me off I'm not only feeling better but I really appreciate reading how everybody has been there. I'm glad there isn't some giant thing I'm missing. I'm definitely going to spend more 'down time' watching videos because I think they are good-enough preparation for emergencies. I mean, short of running drills... which is impractical and not possible. Thank you again!

Hi! I need to provide some history before my question, because I'm looking for a little peer support/counseling/advice: So I've been a nurse for about 8 years now but not really as a practicing one. While I was in nursing school, I became a Healthcare administrator (for a medical plan) and have basically just been in administration ever since. A few years ago during a slump with my day-job I worked on a Medical-Surgical floor for about 6 months.I did OK but the hospital was dangerously understaffed (I was supposed to have 4-5 patients every night but I'd usually have 7-9, and a few times I had 11).I left because, as a full-time-administrator, I knew exactly how the hospital was gambling with everybody's license and it made me deeply uncomfortable.Now, as a side gig, I work at a elementary school for children with disabilities one day a week.MANY of these kids have significant medical concerns (Anaphylactic reactions, seizures, etc)I find that most of what I do is just record review, first aid, etc.I really like it... Sort of. I like the record review... the first aid... keeping everything organized... But when I first started I was petrified, all day long, that one of our 8 students (of 72 -- so 11% of the students) was going to need emergency care (Epi-pen, diastat, etc). A few weeks went by and that subsided. BUT this morning I was just alerted that one of our kids that had a seizure once, three years ago, had a seizure a few days ago. Staff are on alert that he may have another seizure, and I'm back to square one. Not only am I petrified, but I feel less prepared now than I did before. I haven't ever done this stuff. I went to school like everyone else here but I don't do this in my day-to-day. How does everyone else deal with the fact that any any second someone might enter a life threatening situation? I'm also concerned about making mistakes during an emergency... I'm the only school nurse here... but I feel like there ain't any good advice for that other than "Be prepared, do your best and have malpractice insurance paid up!" haha ?