The following situations have happened to me over the years (I work in a high school):
I have had student A (along with friends student B, C and D) come in to my office and tell me they are positive student E has lice.
I have had student L's parent call me telling me that student L saw lice on student M and they just thought I would like to know so I can check student M. (Yep-for real)
Today I had a teacher email me about student Q, R, S, and T concerned about student X's head lice that they all saw crawling in her hair. Teacher does not have student X as a student, but thought I might like to know.
What do you do when you get a 3rd party report of head lice? Do you call the "affected" student down for a check? What do you tell the student? Sometimes it feels a bit like a witch hunt to me, but I am curious what other nurses do.
Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
1 minute ago, ohiobobcat said:
In this particular case, it was a group of "concerned citizens (read: other students)" who reported it to the teacher, and the teacher passed the information on to me. Teacher made it clear in her email.that she has not seen Student X.
Sweet Baby Moses. So...I would have been tempted to give my side-eye and say "I don't truck in rumors or HIPAA violations" but my temper is short these days. You prolly have better self-control.
Not going on a hunt / wild goose chase among 950 middle school students based on rumors about something that is a nuisance.
I feel like I could have actually written this post as I have dealt with the same thing the last few weeks. 3 moms and their daughters (who had no symptoms of lice/nits at all) complaining about a terrible outbreak.............
As a sub I only check students who are brought to me. I will NOT call a student down to be checked.
I've found life lice once, and a couple incomplete treatments where I still found nits. They had their parents with them and we had a nice little education/commiseration section as my girls have had lice twice.
You know, just when I think I've heard/seen about it all ... along come you SNs with a new dilemma to have to handle (and you do so adeptly and seem to have been doing so cool, calm & collected-ly for a long time).
You all have my greatest respect. I take my hat off to y'all.
And no, I won't share my hat with anyone else, or their hats! Makes me think about all those hat depts in the fancy mall stores where I loved to try on all the displayed hats!
Any chance those self-appointed 'mandated' student reporters are just 'mean girls, out to harass a not-popular "IN" student? They would just think it funny as all h*ll for the SN to do a lice head-check. Ya' think?
I tell other students that only a teacher can send me students to be checked so they can bring it up to the teacher discreetly if they are concerned. I also tell them that they should be careful talking about other students because they wouldn't like being the one people are talking about.
I will ONLY check students if the student comes in requesting to be checked, a teacher sends them with a pass for this issue, or if a parent calls and asks me to check their OWN child. Could you imagine telling a student "your classmates are concerned you have lice" or just calling them down to check them without telling them why. I'm at a middle school and these kids already feel like everyone is talking about them. If I'm going to check them, it'll be because an adult in their life is concerned and I will explain that to them.
I will tell them if you actually see something crawling or a kiddo that cannot stop scratching send them down. Other than that we do not entertain tattletales.
I'm with everyone else on the adult tattletale phone calls. I thank them for the information and leave it alone.
Unless the teacher notifies me that they notice the child is excessively scratching their head, there is no need to send the child down based off a third party report.
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
TY for words of wisdom on the subject. In the good ole days mid 90's, I was volunteer mom who checked 250 kids heads at lunch time, What a waste of gloves!
Did find 1 family 3 girls w/ heavy live lice. Mom was told by hairdresser just dandruff. Heated words from mom when I told Principal need note from Peds doc to allow back in school. Mom slinked back in next day apologizing profusely, handed her CDC printout re treatment heads, bedding, toys etc. Took 2 rounds Nix to resolve.
I've had parents calling me in with a report of being concerned about a student with lice but didn't want to share the kid's name or their name. I told them I'd take that under advisement but without names I couldn't do anything about it. Then told me that checking the whole school was a good idea. Yeah - that's not happening, but thank you for your concern
ruby_jane, BSN, RN
3,142 Posts
Sweet Baby Moses. So...I would have been tempted to give my side-eye and say "I don't truck in rumors or HIPAA violations" but my temper is short these days. You prolly have better self-control.