GRAMMYTAB

Just needed to vent to someone today. It is hard being the only "Medical" minded employee in a school. I am happy with my job so please don't take me wrong but.................I am so tired of the non-medical stuff that I am about to blow a gasket. Middle school students are being sent over here, across the street for things like, do i need to take my contact lense out cuz my eye is red, do i need to have some lotion on my hands cuz they are itching, do i need to call my mom cuz i am constipated??? geez...........these are middle school kids......and they are not even supposed to be in my building. Their teachers are just getting tired of them and let them use any excuse to come see me so they can get them out of class and have a break from them. Okay, i get that but ........when i have 3 elementary kids who are injured from playground boo-boo's and others waiting in the hall for me to give them their noon meds, i do not need to deal with the "bigger kids"!!!! do any of you have the same problems??? I spoke with the principal and he is going to send out an email to all teachers to carefully screen the students who are requesting to see the nurse, i hope this helps. I have been here 6 years and love the kids, the families that I have bonded with, and the feeling of being needed! I also love the summers off to spend with my grandkids, the extra days off throughout the year but..............the petty stuff is really getting under my skin. thank you for letting me vent today, Tabitha:clown:

Our school has a policy that OTC meds can be given if the parent provides them and if they have signe the Administration of meds form upon enrollment of that child. Otherwise,,no, they don't get anything from the health office.

:bugeyes:I had an incident this week that woke us all up to an intersting fact!! Just wondering if anyone else has ever had this to happen. A 5th grade student came in around 9:00 with a bad headache (her mom works here at the school and told me to give her some tylenol) so i administered liq. tylenol and sent her to class. Abouth 40 minutes later she came back in and was unable to finish a sentence. I kept asking her what was wrong, her reply was...."I feel like.........." over and over and over....her pupils were normal..all outward signs were normal. I know this child and knew she was either pulling my leg, wanting attention or something was out of whack, so i went and got her mom to come talk to her. She got the same responses. We stood her up, she walked like she was drunk, her speech became slurred...she could not tell me her name......so mom took her to the ER....they did a tox screen and CT of her brain...all came back ok, only showing she had acetamen. in her blood along with 3% ethyl alcohol. We racked our brains trying to figure out where it came from. Mom took the bottle of tylenonl i had used back to hospital and had it checked.. It came back fine of course. They questioned her to see if someone has "slipped" her something....after an entire day of going over and over what could have or might have happened. They determined that she had used sanitizer on her hands, blew her nose, used more, then she is a nail biter so she chewed on her fingernails.........well, long story short.......the doc in the ER said it was like she had gotten the sanintzer in her system and got drunk!!! geez.......what a scare for us.........i only worry about our little ones in prek and kg using it and licking it off their hands but not the 5th graders getting alcohol poisoning!!! what a week this has been.....will be glad when it is over. HOpe the rumors around our small town are not going around that the school nurse now has "happy hour" in her office at 9 every morning!! have a good weekend all you nurses, Tabitha

:nuke: The teachers here in our elementary school add things like bandaids, hand sanitizer, kleenex etc to the school supply list at the start of a new school year. This helps out a lot. Even though not all parents donate items to the health office, it gives me a stock pile of some things and I don't need to buy as much out of the school budget. Tabitha

Hi, I just keep a daily log, I use a generic sheet and fill in the blanks. I keep them divided by the month in a notebook on my shelf. I am alone in the office so there are days that it piles up on me and I get behind, but I try to document every little thing I do. This also helps me to see a pattern of our "frequent flyers" and which teachers are just letting the kids come because they dont' want to mess with them!! Tabitha:banghead:

I would also like to know if this works better! I have had to use old homemade ones for certain diagnosed chronic illnesses. Would love to hear how other school nurses get the appropriate care plans. thank you:banghead:

May 31st at 3:00!! And I have my ticket to Alaska already!!!

Wow, you did have a really bad day!! So sorry that it turned out that way. I do understand how we as the medical professional feel isolated in the school system. I just finally had to get used to it and suck it up!! I go to work each day and do my job "for the kids". And, each year as we near spring...i do get burned out....am hanging in there till it is the end of May. ....by August I will be begging to come back!!! Tabitha:banghead:

Believe it or not....I was a welder!!!! Dirty job!!! all that smoke and once i caught the hem of my jeans on fire.......think nursing is a safer option for me!!!

Ok! I had one today that I just have to share with you guys. A second grade girl came in and said her teacher sent her to call her mom. I asked her why and she told me it was because her panites were bothering her!! Well, because of past dealings with this child's mom in the past, I let her call home. Mom sent someone up to take her home.......now....on my daily absentee sheet that I keep, I had to come up with what reason this child left school today. So, since I am not that creative, I just put..............she left to go home because her panites were in a "wad"!!!

ugh..this one about had me gagging!! here is goes.. I had a first grader come in telling me he felt like he was gonna "fro up" so I asked him if he had eaten that morning and his reply was "yep, my sister made me eat a booger at the bus stop!" I had to get him out of my office quick after that one!!!!:icon_roll

I have the same problem here! It is just assumed by "them" that I won't mind their kids staying in here with me all day!!

My biggest pet peeve is the student who shows up with a papercut and it isn't even bleeding but the teacher sent them anyway...I did slow this down a bit by responding with a box of bandaids sent back with the student for the teacher to apply to the cut.

I had worked in home health, the hospital, and then several years for an internist/pediatrician. You should have a couple of years experience under your belt because you truly are on your own in the school nurse setting. I cam in and had to put this office together from scratch so my experience and organizational skills helped. I asked the county health department for a lot of help and they were great. I got online and asked other school nurses what they used such as Policies and how they documented. You can always email me and I will be glad to help.