dta815

Hello Everyone, First time poster, long time lurker. I currently work in a private school in MA, we have 368 kids and K-8. Also important to note is that I am fairly new to School Nursing (started 10/11). In any case, I need some help from RN's who have been doing School Nursing for a while! My School is currently having an issue with Lice, this started yesterday and has became a major issue (teacher hysteria) over the past 24 hours. A parent reported to me that their child has lice yesterday morning and asked me if it would be possible for me to check the child's friends and some fellow classmates. I found 3 cases of active infestation within the classroom. I researched the school policy regarding lice and did not find one, the principal was out at a meeting, so I called the City Health Coordinator who is the person I am supposed to contact with any health issues, considering she is an NP. I researched the current NASN guidelines and found a great position statement from them about head lice. I spoke with the Coordinator about keeping the kids in school, but alerting their parents. She advised me that currently the standards for lice are that the child stays in school and I should follow the guidelines accordingly. To make a long story short, a few of the teachers went into a mass panic. Telling me that I am going to be the cause for lice "epidemic" if I do not send these kids home. I attempted to educate them on the myths about lice and I tried to explain that these kids could have had lice for a month or more. They said I had no idea what I was talking about and ended up calling the principal out of her meeting. She came and essentially told me that I need to adhere to a no-nit policy and immediately dismiss the children who have lice. I tried to explain to her that this was not necessary. I even printed out the current CDC, NASN and AAP guidelines for dealing with head lice. She said that the teachers were very worried that they would get lice and did not want these kids in their room. I tried again to explain that dismissing the kids in the older grades was not necessary, but she will not even listen to me. I am torn because I know that I should be following the guidelines put forth by the state and the recommendation of our Health Coordinator, but the Principal and the teachers who know nothing about nursing or head lice for that matter are blowing this out of the water and refusing to listen to my explanations and suggestions about how we should handle head lice. I emailed the Principal today and explained the rationale for not sending kids home with lice and also suggested that she speak with the Health Coordinator. Work is extremely volatile right now and I do not feel that my nursing skills and judgment calls, which are grounded in evidence-based practice, are being respected or even heard. What should I do??