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Discussion

School nurses, need advice - medical emergency

I'm seeking some information from you school nurses. I'm a RN in the hospital setting, so I don't have any experience with this type of issue.

A dear friend of mine is a teachers' assistant. The school where she is emploeyd, sadly, has only a part-time school nurse (she is shared with several other counties and was not there at the time of this incident).

Recently, a 9 year old in her classroom suffered a grand mal seizure. The child fell out of a chair and they were unsure whether she struck her head on the floor. The child has no history of seizures that the parent/school are aware.

The school did not call EMS, but called the mother (who was an hour away and stated that she would be there in 1-2 hours time). I suppose that the mother gave no directions to call EMS at that time.

The child was kept in the classroom and observed by a teacher. Sadly, only one of the teachers in this school is even trained in CPR! Mother arrived several hours later and picked up the child.

Does your school have any policies/procedures for medical emergencies? Is this typical - call the parent/not call EMS? It just seems like a huge liability for the school and health hazard for the kid (with sometimes undereducated parents, sad to say).

Any input/advice/thoughts? Thanks for your help! :)

Featured Replies

In my school, I would have called 911. There would be no way that the student would stay in class. If the parent was 2 hours away, the child would be transported via EMS and the parent would be directed to go the that particular hospital. Remember to doccument everything...when it happened, duration of the seizure, vitals post seizure, etc....

In ANY school, 911 should have been called, especially since the child had no known seizure disorder!!!:confused:

can anyone say lawsuit potential????

Even as a nurse for children with special needs if a child with no known seizure disorder has a seizure we call 911 first then the parent!!!

if the child had not ha a previous seizure than the parents really couldn't have enough information to decide on this...they should have been called and informed of the seizure and informed that the child would be tansported to the nearest er..certainly should have been protocal with a possible head injury certainly without a medical person to do pupil checks and v/s

to a lay person the term grand mal may not mean anything

  • Author

Thanks for the responses.

I was utterly SHOCKED that no one at this school called EMS and I told my friend such. She didn't seem as surprised as I did (she completed a semester of nursing school but didn't finish).

I think if that was my child I would be LIVID!

Thanks again.

Any time someone has a FIRST time seizure that is medical emergency and 911 should be called.

Swtooth

That parent should have sued the school district. They are not providing a safe environment for the child , they are not trained to monitor the situation. That is the disgrace that the principal or supervisor in charge did not call 911. I would expect a formal reprimand from the superintendant to the principal and new safety procedures to be put in place , taught by the nurse to the staff. I would have been flipping. Obviously, if there was a nurse there, she would have hopefully have called 911 but there was poor judgement on the part of whomever was in charge at the time.

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