fetch

Well today went out with a BANG -- a kindergartener stuck scissors in an electrical socket! Thankfully he's okay - it looks like a bunch of dried glue on the ends of the blade insulated him from everything but a spark (and mom already has him at the MD of course). I got so many construction paper cards from so many classes, and one from a PreK class that is just beyond precious. They all wrote what being a nurse means to them -- my personal favorite is "It checks your back. The nurse checks your heart. A nurse is a veterinarian." A close second is "They help people never ever get sick" (from a student who has never ever come to my clinic, but knows me from helping with dismissal). Of course I'll still be around, though not as much to contribute until I start sub nursing. Good luck to everyone in finishing out the school year! And thank you all for your invaluable advice, sounding boards, safe space to vent, cheers . . . the list goes on and on.

God bless those entertainment troops who do school-wide anti-bullying assemblies, etc! An hour of NO VISITS is a great gift.

The kids, absolutely. Even kids who I don't see hardly ever, who I would have thought didn't like me because I didn't let them go home when they had just a bellyache -- when they found out I'm leaving, they came by to say they'll miss me and to give me a hug. After 2 years I'm really realizing how much I've learned about them.

Any nursing jobs you have working independently, emphasize those on your resume/cover letter. Apply to be a sub nurse if your schedule allows. Really be up on your seizure/diabetes/asthma/food allergies info. Peds jobs, ED jobs, community health jobs, all have skills you can emphasize to interviewers. I know a couple nurses in my area got their foot in the door by working with the health department (we work closely with them, especially their vaccination clinic) or mobile flu shot clinics. If you interview with a principal, have some sort of worksheet put together to present. (I created a diabetes flow chart aimed at 4th/5th graders, so they can use math skills to calculate their insulin and computer skills to look up food values on a specific website. But there's no diabetics at my school so I never ended up using it!) Principals are used to interviewing teachers, which means they see portfolios and data. Anything along that lines will set you apart from the nurses who bring in resume/cover letter/reference letter. And yeah, if you happen to know any principals, schmoozing with them won't hurt!! Best of luck.

My unused, expired EpiPens go in the sharps container. I don't know why they wouldn't? Without the outer package, but with the blue cap intact. For pills, I get a witness (usually the secretary) and some coffee grounds (usually from the secretary!) and mix the grounds with the pills, double bag it, maybe with some unused Voban in the outer bag so people REALLY don't want to mess with it. Throw it in my trash can, tie it up, throw it in the janitor trash can. Sometimes I get lucky and the local fire department has a 'bring your old meds in for disposal' day, then I just use that. Sometimes local pharmacies will do that too. Expired inhalers, I separate into component parts and throw away in trash can. Remove children's info with a black sharpie.

I recently had a minor procedure, and when I woke up I was totally not myself. Sobbing uncontrollably, totally freaked out, and I asked the nurse if I could hold her hand. I have no idea how long it was, but she kindly agreed, it felt like quite a while, and then did exactly as many of you said "okay fetch, I need to get some work done, but I'm going to be right over there and your wife is still here, okay?" YUP even though my wife was there and holding my hand, I still asked the nurse as well! It was bizarre, I am usually much more a "pat the shoulders" type person. (And later my wife told me, the nurse really only held my hand about 10 seconds, but in the moment it felt like I was being grounded back to myself and it felt much longer.) Short of it is, I now appreciate more why someone would ask, but I can definitely understand if you aren't comfortable with it. And if you are able to, even just a few seconds really is comforting. In my practice as a school nurse, I keep a few stuffed animals on hand so if a child gets scared, they can squeeze away while I clean out their boo-boo. And then a high-five after for being so brave!

Congrats to you on your retirement!!

We start after Labor Day here . . . were supposed to go until June 15, last day for teachers June 16, but with so many snow days they ended up just adding 15 minutes to each school day and instead we get out June 12! Niiiiiice. Of course for me, my last day is FRIDAY!!!

I super appreciate a teacher walking by with his class and seeing that I am just now, an hour before dismissal, starting to shovel my lunch into my face. And then proceeding to send to me three nonsense visits in a row.

And make sure when you interview or write your cover letter, you emphasize that! I say this to everyone, but -- if your schedule allows, see about picking up a few days a week as a sub nurse in your district. As a new grad, with only NICU experience, getting your foot in the door like that can really help. Best of luck!!

This morning someone complained "He blood pressured me in the cafeteria!" He did what now?? Squeezed his arm hard. I see the phenomenon has spread nationwide!

Twins! There's one set of almost identical twins in the 1st grade - I have learned that the one with an "M" in her name also has a Marilyn Monroe-style mole, so that is how I can cheat and tell them apart. But in 3rd grade we have TRIPLETS, one boy and two girls, and while they do look slightly different I can't tell the girls apart at all!! They love to tease me for it too. Today's D'OH moment - telling a KG student to put pressure on her nosebleed and being surprised that she just sticks the tissue up her nostril.

"Professional" should be determined by what your profession is - as such, I find scrubs perfectly professional for nurses and other medical personnel, no matter where they are working. It helps identify me to parents and the little-little ones. I am NOT a teacher, and do not want to dress like one! Plus, comfy, cheap, and able to be bled or puked on without it ruining them - as many others have already said.

Okay, I've moved on from the ABX strep throat sprayers over the doorways -- now I would please like aerosolized Claritin and albuterol over each doorway! Or better yet, an airlock -- go in, breathe 30 seconds, THEN you can go outside.

Historically speaking, allnurses moderators have been very strict about keeping threads on topic. And parenting styles can be a hot topic that get tempers up. I just did not want the thread to get de-railed and/or shut down, that's all.

It's a good point, but honestly at that point I think I'd be calling CPS before the parents, depending on what the student says. (And again, I'm in elementary, so I have no experience dealing with this - just what my gut says.) As terrible as it is, there are parents out there who abuse their children, and if the student is that young then a CPS visit might be a good thing? Or maybe a phone call to home saying "your student has been presenting with vague upset stomach complaints, there is XYZ going around the building, she doesn't need to go home at this time but you might want to call her doctor for an appointment to double check she doesn't have a virus." Really here's what it boils down to for me: Sometimes I feel like discussions about teenagers turn into "what is the responsibility toward the parent" instead of toward the teen. (Not saying this one has!) They're tied together, but the teen is the priority. If she's old enough to make those choices, we shouldn't be going behind her back to inform her parents. If she's NOT old enough to make those choices, we should be protecting her, even if we're protecting her from her parents. And where's the magic line between old enough and not old enough? This is also making me think about pregnant autistic women, and the difficulties they face in being considered competent. But that is way off subject, I've just had this window open 30 minutes (lots of walk ins!) and my brain is firing all over the place. The other aspect of responsibility, is that we are NOT primary health care offices (although I have heard of some high schools doing that). So is it just our responsibility to refer the student out to their PCP? Like a student with mostly well-controlled asthma, whose parents refuse to bring in any inhalers -- it's potentially life threatening, but we can't take her to the MD ourselves, all we can do is request and refer, unless/until an emergency happens. If a student is pregnant and healthy, does it benefit her for us to interfere? I also am not trying to be combative, I'm kind of thinking "on the keys" (instead of "out loud" lol). I think I'm going to bring this up with the other nurses in my district and see where their thoughts lie. It's an interesting question.

This seems to be veering off topic. We aren't here to discuss parenting, but the role of the school nurse in a potentially pregnant student. OP, I'm sorry you got put in that position by other staff members. This made me look up the regulations in my area: (Emphasis mine.) So to me, that's pretty clear, an adult has the right to determine if anyone else accesses her medical records. But man, I'm glad I don't work with high schoolers and don't have to deal with that!

Just now I had a student who bit the inside of his right cheek yesterday, and did the left cheek today. Rinsed mouth, no bleeding, yadda yadda . . . as I'm getting ready to send him back he asks "aren't you going to call my mom??" Um NO. In general though I try to follow a similar path as tining says. Send them back to class and call the parents afterwards. Unfortunately for most students if the parent puts "sick" on the sign out sheet the attendance clerk will mark it excused, whether or not I really think they need to go home.

We've got a thread for kids, but sometimes the parents come out with some doozies too! For example - Parent: I just saw that donut is one of the breakfast options and I don't want (child) having too much sugar, can you tell the cafeteria that he's allergic to sugar? Me: After some parent education about what allergy alerts are actually for, and the sugar content of our donuts (they are really more like bread rolls, I had a similar concern until I bought one), I encouraged mom to talk to her student about healthy choices. He's in 5th grade, he is old enough to take responsibility for food choices. Anyone else have a recent parent encounter that makes you shake your head and giggle?

Nearly got nailed today! A frequent flyer, very quiet student, leans in close to talk . . . nauseated . . . every time she leaned in to whisper to me I thought PLEASE DON'T PUKE. Well after about 10 minutes and 2 cups of water, suddenly it's projectile vomit all over herself and the clinic - but thankfully NOT on me or the student nurse who was visiting today!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihB_lTOSshM I've seen this before and wanted to try it, but I don't think any of my little ones would stand for it!

This one I can kind of understand - especially if that gets so tight you can't get scissors underneath. In my clinic we have the ringcutter, which is a little easier to get under a tight zip tie. ETA: Oh yeah, and today's already got a winner: "I bumped my head on my iPad yesterday at home." Really kid?

Yesterday it was 70*, tonight they're calling for MORE SNOW! WHAT!!!! PS, anyone have some anti-strep throat spray that I can set up over our front doors to douse every person who enters the building? Because that would be really helpful!

Oooh yeah! "What's wrong?" "My nose" "Yup you have a nose, I have one too! Want me to cut it off for you to make you look different?"

Thanks ya'll. I'll be school nurse subbing a bit next year, once the theme park closes for the winter, and I'm going to keep an eye out for other PRN nursing jobs. I figure, my mom held multiple jobs that could have been careers, but she always moved on to something new (store manager, paralegal, Christian education director, teacher, stay at home mom, just to name a few of them). I'd be just following in her footsteps to not have one simple career!