Tencat25

Hello all! I have been a nurse for 11 years, 8 of which I've spent in Hospice care. This is my 3rd year as a school nurse. Recently my school had my first truly emergent situation in which a student with unremarkable medical history was having seizures outside at lunchtime. It was absolute chaos. I knew what to do for the student. But the other adults around me were panicked and all trying to take control at the same time (Administration was on scene too and was also panicking). Everyone had a radio and they were all talking on it at once so I couldn't talk to the main office who had 911 on the phone. A security guard was standing over me yelling at the student to 'calm down' as student tried to stand (big kid) post seizure and promptly went into another seizure. Student turned blue and stopped breathing. He had a thready pulse. I flipped student onto his back from his left side and opened his airway, ready to begin CPR if necessary, and the act of flipping him rather roughly (adrenaline is an interesting thing....) got him breathing again. Thank heavens for my health assistant, who was marvelous at getting just what I needed such as the AED on standby and a face sheet for EMS. Long story short, student was dehydrated and did not have lunch so blood sugars were in the toilet (not a known diabetic). Deconstructing the event I see that I needed to take control and failed to do so as I got 'tunnel vision' about the student's immediate needs. So I'm wondering, do printed protocols work to help avoid this situation in the future? School district does not have them but I figure I could put some together. How do I handle Admin? Would a team of adults to be called out for an emergency be helpful? Any other thoughts? Thanks!

Absolutely you did right by calling 911. In fact, if it had been me I would have called first, then dealt with fallout from granny, parents, etc. Our district has a call 911 first policy, THEN contact parent. I've had parents really mad a me for calling an ambulance, but my license is too important to worry about a parental hissy fit.

OMG! This happened to me this week. Kid came in with a slightly red conjunctiva in one eye. He was told by the teacher he had pink eye. We looked at him and determined that it was mildly red conjunctiva in eye, told him to keep washing his hands and to not touch other kids. No discharge, just redness. Then we sent his happy behind back to class (frequent flyer). Next thing we know his mother is here to pick him up because the teacher called her and told her he was sending the kid home for pink eye. Grrrrr. I stuck the state health guidelines on pinkeye in his mailbox and told the principal that I did not send kiddo home, nor was I mandated to. So, that's how I handled the issue. I try not to get too worked up over these issues. If I did, I would be mad all the time! (kids are constantly texting mom to come get them without seeing me first.) If it becomes a regular issue, then I would have a nice 'come to Jesus' meeting with the teacher in question and lay it out.

Who knows? They tend to be drama queens in the admin office.

Thanks for all the replies! Apparently they ruled out Bell's Palsy, and parents refused MRI, though a CT scan was clear. Student was in school today and was running a fever and had to go home because of that. I wonder if Flu virus might cause issues.....the flu is currently going around. Hmmm.... Around my school we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. Last week we called the ambulance and got reamed out for doing so. Yesterday we didn't call and we got reamed out.......our administration is very quick to toss us under the bus whenever it suits them....Ugh.

Hi all! I need some feedback. A student presents with facial drooping on one side of face, but no breathing problems, alert and oriented x4, no recent injuries, no vision problems. Parents are called and strongly encouraged to take student in ASAP to have it evaluated. Parents come and get student and take to ER. Now parents are coming unglued because and ambulance wasn't called. No mention of what is wrong with student, but apparently 'it's bad' according to principal. Should we have called 911? Nothing was wrong that we could see other than the facial drooping with no history of anything. What would you all have done?