moreoreo

It's a serious problem, and I think the more children who "go to the nurse," the more others think it's a place they can go, too, so that each nonsense visit spawns others. I have had a parent whose child suddenly started coming frequently say, "I think one of her classmates was going to the nurse a lot and that's why this started." I think it would help to have specific criteria of when to send students-I think to leave it open ended leaves teachers nervous not to send, even if they think a child is fine-but in my district, at least, management thinks that teachers shouldn't make any health related decisions even if it's something like a papercut. Which I think is so dumb, for lack of a better word! Sometimes the health office just feels like another place to go once a day, like the bathroom. Not sure how we can be expected to handle the emergencies at the same time as every little discomfort that is noted in the entire school. (no, I don't have 40 years experience :-) and I myself am still in my 20s, but I never went to the nurse as a child-I didn't know there was one, and I certainly never would have even thought to try to leave school for something like a passing headache. And if my parents had been called at work for my bumping my head on my desk while picking something up they would have been extremely confused. Sometimes it feels like we are liability officers and not nurses!)

I am in a similar position- except with baby #1 and anticipating I will likely also stay home through baby #2 starting school- with mixed feelings but somehow also certain this is the right choice for me. I too hope to return to school nursing and also hope this great board and group will still be here when I return. I will probably still peek in once in a while in the meantime. Best of luck to you, your little ones, and everyone here and their little ones (both at home and at school)!

This is so true for me, too! I remember the days when I was still overwhelmed with the problems of bedside nursing, feeling like I had no way out, when my husband suggested school nursing to me and I found this forum and read countless posts saying, "the worst day as a school nurse is still better than the best day as a bedside nurse." While there are aspects of bedside nursing that I miss, that statement has proven true for me in the year I've been at my school. Yes, our role is misunderstood, and a lot of the work we (or at least I--I'm not certified so I don't do IEPs and other "higher level" school nurse work) do can feel really trivial or at least COMPLETELY unrelated to our training, license, and education (lice, anyone? I die a little every time anyone acts like I am a lice expert, even though I have certainly educated myself on the subject). In the first few months I felt inundated and overworked. Nowadays there are days that I think, "wow, I saw 60 students but no one went home and no one really needed me" (knock on wood!). But I feel like there is more hope in the work I do here than there was in the hospital, I am more autonomous, and there is more room for me to grow. Then again, my pay here is not that much less per hour than what I initially was making in the hospital. Plus I am starting a family so that makes the decision easier for me to work in this setting rather than one where I work holidays and weekends. It's definitely a choice that has to be made and I can imagine it's not for everyone! I have thought many times that maybe I could find some place in some hospital that would work out for me, but overall I can't imagine choosing HCAPs, pain scales, unresponsive physicians, scripted bedside report, being shortstaffed, etc. over what I do now :)

My thoughts and wishes are with you, your student, and his or her family!

I have a few of those. Their visit note gets longer and longer as I try to encourage them to return to class!

I'm at an elementary school and we do not have stock OTC meds, not even cough drops, and I have to say I prefer it this way. Our mindset is that we are here to manage unexpected health issues that come up during the school day, NOT to be a health "clinic" seeing students for issues for which they should have stayed home. To have Tylenol, ibuprofen, Tums, etc. on hand I do think implies that we are happy to manage any and all discomforts at school which could cause parents to send when they should have kept home. Also we have a school of almost 1000 so if we opened those floodgates I would probably actually drown We do however have stock EpiPens. I think it would be good to have stock albuterol as well. I can see the argument for Tylenol in the case of fever management but I don't think that's quite as immediately emergent, and I can already imagine all the parents who would decline to pick up their students for fevers if they thought they could take Tylenol and hang out here.

Still reading everyone's replies but completely agree with all that you did the right thing! I called paramedics recently for an asthma flare up in a student who did not have medication in the health office (parent could not come right away and her symptoms worsened as she waited) and the paramedics in this situation also did not seem impressed with the student's presentation (but quickly decided to transport). I think they may not realize the position we are in. No, I do not think the student specifically required an ambulance. If she had an inhaler to take or a parent who could arrive right away to bring her medication or take her to use her medication, she may have been fine without urgent attention. My situation I think was less emergent than yours was but the point is, it's not our child, and our hands are tied due to lack of tools and inability to personally take the student to where they need to be. I'm glad you stood up for your student and were confident in your assessment! I know he must have appreciated it.

I would freak out too! I have nothing especially worthy of "c'mon now"ing about, just I'm 8 months pregnant so I feel exasperated by literally every little thing. Trying my best to remember my students are little and can't be expected to always know what's going on with their own bodies

Does your district's HR have an Employee Assistance Program? One of my benefits at my district is all the employees have access to a toll-free number to call for support with life issues (emotional, financial, legal, family, etc.) and referrals to professional resources. If you're not sure, maybe you could ask your HR representative if they offer something like that? (Though I think maybe they would have mentioned it already.)

My heart goes out to you and your family. I know this thread is already full of kindness and good advice-I unfortunately don't have any new advice of my own to offer-but just wanted to send some love your way. I can't imagine what it must have felt like to go through such trauma and I hope time will be kind and heal you and your sons.

Oh... the bane of Monday mornings. "Arm is bruised from the weekend. Says Mom knows but can you check?" Check what? To make sure it's not broken with my X-ray vision? I kind of get it. From a caring perspective it makes sense and we are seen as health experts. But there are those Mondays where it's like every student who came back even a little bit altered from how they were on Friday has to be checked out by me personally to make sure parents did not ruin them over the weekend

This is SO TRUE!!! It can be fun to venture out into the school world (in my school of ~900 I am expected to be in my office at almost all times so I am not often in the hallways) because the students do get excited. The little ones exclaim, "you're the nurse!" and sometimes even share updates with me like, "my nose isn't bleeding anymore!" (well it shouldn't be, that happened a month ago!) or tell me other things they think are important :) but then there are those certain students, especially when they happen to be in the middle of a random dry spell, that you make eye contact with and go and may as well say, "see you soon!"

I think everyone has said what I would have said! I am from pre-k to 5th grade so a very different population from yours. But like others have said--experience will help. You will start to know the students who come frequently and you will develop a routine that will shorten their visits (and hopefully speak candidly with their parents if they are coming frequently for minor reasons). It was hard for me as a newbie because it's such a different environment than the hospital. Every neck ache I had to rule out meningitis, abdominal discomfort had to be ruled out as appendicitis, etc. Of course I still think about worst case scenarios and ensure that students are truly OK before they leave my office, but my processes have become much more stream-lined. Even for students who are not frequent flyers. It's really about establishing your own rhythm, and you will get there! Like others have said, you may have to learn the art of being caring without being fun/nice/coddling. I coddled so much when I started that I started seeing up to 100 kids on days when only 3 would go home. Not every discomfort needs rest on the cot, not every injury needs an ice pack. If a student is afebrile and I can't identify a reason they HAVE to go home, they are out my door within a few minutes after a drink of water. Good luck! It will get better, I promise! I have just a hit one year and am feeling calmer and better able to do my job.

I kept thinking today was Friday 8.5 hours left for me!

Do you guys get a lot of dismissal-time visitors? Sometimes a child is literally minutes away from being picked up by their own parent and they come to me to tell me they bumped their arm or whatnot and I don't give an ice pack or "treat" beyond basic assessment because why didn't they just go tell their parent? It's different if it's bad nausea before a bus ride or something bigger that happened at gym or a child who has lengthy after-school activities but sometimes I get complaints like "my skin is itchy on my wrist" or "I bumped my elbow on my chair" from students who are dressed up to go home, parent is probably right outside, and I can't help but wonder what imagined benefit there is to that!

Just wanted to throw out there, that sometimes you have such a run of not-so-nice parents that when you encounter one normal one who says the words "thank you" you have to savor that for a while. A smile and basic manners are enough to warm my heart these days.

I'm still here! Saw more than 50 yesterday on our short day which is a lot but I am so ready for break that I didn't even realize how many until the day was already over! Fingers crossed for all of us who are still around that Friday will come quickly and end smoothly

:D I made my husband watch this, because I tell him so much about the bigger things that happen but THIS is the fluff that makes up much of my days

I was just talking to my husband the other day about square dancing and how I wonder why that of all things is something we did so much in gym class. We have two very young gym teachers at my school and I wonder if they teach it, too, like if it's state-required in any way. It's funny to think about. I was a bookworm, NOT a runner, in elementary and middle school. I recall one mile that I "ran" in 20+ minutes and I still got an A for the class. The ones puking and having trouble were the ones with the "best" times. I had no regrets

"We found this little bug can you tell us what it is?" :bored: I vividly remember, that when my husband had Valentine's flowers delivered to me in my second month of working at my school, and the ladies in the office called to tell me "we have something for you in the office," I was SURE without a doubt it would be a bug for me to identify

So sorry! I had a lot of early morning fevers last week, not so bad this morning, but I went out with the wheelchair twice in 20 minutes on Friday, in the middle of 12 in one hour, on a day I was alone, and had two angry parents last week (I don't get many of those, luckily). So I am heading into this week sort of nervous that it's just the beginning and I have more hurdles before break. Does anyone else get nervous before a big break like "of course it can't be easy heading into it"? Of course it's warm out this week so I can't hope for indoor recess, either. No big c'mon nows this morning from me, though. Good luck to everyone still waiting on the holidays! And for the lucky ones on break already, I hope you are living it up extra for the rest of us

That's true. I was surprised once by a case of Fifth's Disease because it avoided my other parameters except that the child was uncomfortable enough to be sent home and had a mild temp. His parents thought his skin had been irritated by swimming pool water, and he did have a hx of sensitive skin with other irritation before. (His face was really not as red as pictures of that specific rash!)

(I know this exact topic has been posted before; I've read a few but am wondering if there are any other nuggets of wisdom out there to receive!) When to dismiss for a "rash"?? I've had teachers write "rash" for things that to me looked like or were clearly bug bites. Or for one small area of what to me just looked like irritated/inflamed skin. Of course I look for dismissal if the issue is all over the body, or if skin is oozing/crusting/raw/raised/blistering, or if it is accompanied by systemic issues like fever, headache, stomachache, etc. However, there are times when my instinct says it's no biggie but it's not like I can answer teachers' questions with a confident, "No, it's not contagious!" What kind of steps do you follow in your decision-making process? (Pink eye is a similar issue; for this I used to dismiss left and right but then I read public health recommendations and have also learned better to discern between irritation vs. a possibly infectious case)

We are in full swing until the weekend before Christmas, off until 1/9. I hear this is a great way to do break so we don't spend a week of it stressed out preparing for the holidays. But sitting here this Friday I do wish we were starting tomorrow . I am in my third trimester of pregnancy and combined with break being so soon, it's hard to be motivated! I am almost grateful when the office is full because it keeps me focused and the time passes more quickly. Wishing you and all your families a happy and safe holiday season!

I have one teacher who I think has cold hands because she has sent at least a dozen children down this year with "forehead is hot" passes and none of them have had even a mildly elevated temp. I admit that sometimes as I am checking with my thermometer even my hands will feel a "heat wave" from a child's face that turns out not to be febrile! There is one other teacher who used to send many students but has scaled back; she just recently sent me two consecutive students with "feels warm"? passes that had legitimate fevers and I was so impressed! I'm sorry for your incidental fever-- I always run high so sometimes when I "check" my thermometer I am surprised by what I find, too. Hope you are feeling well!