Reaching my breaking point with middle schoolers

[nursex23]

Has anyone else ever had a period in time where they've just kinda had it. I had a student come in, no pass. Nope, go get a pass. She rolled her eyes as she left. She came back with a pass saying she needs an ice pack for her finger because she bent it back with her other finger. Full ROM, no bruise, no swelling, no redness, nothing. Give me a break! It's a combination of the attitude, the exaggeration, and the fact that the teacher let her leave class for this. It's also that SOOOOOO many students come in asking for ice and when I ask why, I hear the most ridiculous answers. I almost want to ask them if they have a whole freezer with ice packs at home that they use for every ailment. Ok rant over.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

Maybe it's because I see a wider range of ages, but in my school it's really not my middle schoolers that are my malingerers. Most of my middle school teachers are pretty good at filtering out the nonsense visits. Most will ask for a baggie of bandaids to keep down the 15 minute stroll for the invisible 4-day-old paper cut. But others will send down kids just because they're annoying them. I'm not saying that i never get a good performance of "I broke it" (the musical) from the middle schoolers - in fact, they're usually the ones who I have to fetch with the wheelchair because they have a bout of nausea and are now struck completely incapacitated. Point is, the drama runs deep in middle school. I expect it. I won't feed into it, but i certainly expect it.

[Nursesusu]

When it gets ridiculous, my love of statistics comes to the forefront. I use SNAP which allows me to print off a report of the number of visits per class room and I then quickly calculate the total amount of teaching hours missed per class, so far this year. I then email this info to the Principal. Sometimes, with those teachers who send me students just because they inhaled and exhaled, it makes no difference. For most teachers, it's a come to Jesus moment.

[nursex23, BSN, RN]

10 minutes ago, Flare said:

But others will send down kids just because they're annoying them.

I HIGHLY suspect many teachers are doing this. I've had students come in with passes from their teacher for hiccups or asking for band aids for nonexistent cuts or "my teacher wants you to take a look at me" with absolutely nothing going on or asking for an ice pack because they hit their finger on a desk. These kids are so into their nonsense and the teachers feed it and I guess the last nurse would also feed into all of it so now I'm the bad guy when I won't give them an ice pack just because they asked. I actually started listing main reason for visit as "requesting ice pack" and many many students are getting a long line of visits saying this.

[arlingtonnurse]

I agree that teachers send kids because they are annoying but (most of the time) I don't mind being part of the team to handle that kid. I think we should be part of it. If a student asks to go to the nurse over and over the teacher could be liable if the kid tells their parent about their terrible suffering that they weren't allowed to be seen for. A quick trip to us (and even a fifteen minute walk is quicker that 45 minutes of pestering teacher or sitting with glum head on desk) gets resolution for student and teacher and shuts that issue down.

[nursex23, BSN, RN]

3 minutes ago, arlingtonnurse said:

I think we should be part of it.

I see your point but then I would have dozens of students in my office at any given time with nothing going on and I don't think that's fair to the students with legitimate medical needs.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

STAY STRONG.

If this is because of another nurse's behavior, pointing out the amount of missed class time to all and sundry might help.

Also when I had time and I wasn't going to provide ice, I would call the teacher in the moment and explain. After about three more passes sometimes that would help!

Ah yes, middle schoolers...I have two of my own. I think mine are fairly decent humans, but some of their friends ? The MS nurse in my building was just telling me a story recently about these two girls at the school in 8th who had been arrested a week before for shoplifting. Were also suspended for three days from school (another offense) and had just come back were were essentially wandering the halls and refusing to go into class. One of them had a belly shirt on and went to see the nurse and she asked her to cover herself (dress code) and the girl pulls her shirt all the way up to expose her breasts and slaps her stomach and tells the nurse to suck it ? I realize this is an extreme example of MS behavior but there are quite a few students like this here and I could NEVER take care of them. I would be to judgmental and angry at them to be caring.

[tining, BSN, RN]

13 hours ago, Rose_Queen said:

Soooooooooo just gonna put this out there. Are you sure the passes are legit? I mean, some middle/ high school kids may or may not have snagged an entire pad of presigned passes. Not that I would know anything about that of course.

I have a stamp that says "Left nurse @_______"

Can't forge that!

[nursex23, BSN, RN]

3 minutes ago, MHDNURSE said:

the girl pulls her shirt all the way up to expose her breasts and slaps her stomach and tells the nurse to suck it

If something like that happened to me I think I would quit on the spot. I'm fuming just reading that.

5 minutes ago, MHDNURSE said:

I would be to judgmental and angry at them to be caring.

I think this is my problem. I don't think middle school is for me.

[tining, BSN, RN]

I have no problem calling parents to tell them how disrespectful their student was.

[nursex23, BSN, RN]

Just now, tining said:

I have no problem calling parents to tell them how disrespectful their student was.

Big oof, I just don't have the cajones for that. Not yet at least.

[tining, BSN, RN]

30 minutes ago, nursex23 said:

Big oof, I just don't have the cajones for that. Not yet at least.

I usually threaten and say "lets start this conversation over." However if that fails, I will call parent on speaker phone.