Does this fall under "my job"?

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Specializes in school/military/OR/home health.

When a student on ADHD meds does not take their meds in the morning, I agree that it is part of my job to call a parent and ask if someone can bring meds. If that is impossible (for any one of 1,000 reasons), and the teacher complains that the student is not manageable in the classroom, should it be the nurse's responsibility to call home and ask that the student be picked up? And is this a nurse's dismissal? It is a medical issue at the heart of it, but the student isn't really sick. Gray area here and it makes me uncomfortable. What does everyone think?

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Look at your district's policy because that is one slippery slope. Our policy states that it is the school's responsibility to have a plan for an unmedicated student. Unmanageable is a subjective term.....

Now, if student is a threat to himself or others - it would be reasonable for AN ADMINSTRATOR to make that call about sending that student home but not you as the nurse.

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Specializes in School Nurse, past Med Surge.

That's a discipline issue, not a nurse issue, IMO. Teacher needs to suck it up & deal with it, or get the principal involved if the student truly cannot be managed.

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That's a discipline issue, not a nurse issue, IMO. Teacher needs to suck it up & deal with it, or get the principal involved if the student truly cannot be managed.

Yeah, pretty much this. Being "unmanageable" while unmedicated, is no different from being "unmanageable" with no prescribed meds. Class management, not medical!

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

If the students meds are unavailable, and the student is acting up, the SPED department or classroom will handle it. If they can't, they will make the decision as to what to do next. I am not a behavioral therapist, nor am I in a position to see what the child is actually doing during class to make a valid report to parents. We have a director, teachers, and staff in the SPED department for a reason.

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Is the child truly unmanageable?

Or is the teacher freaking out because she/he knows the kid forgot his meds?

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Is the child truly unmanageable?

Or is the teacher freaking out because she/he knows the kid forgot his meds?

I had this last week- 5th grader told teacher that he didn't take his meds. Teacher is in a tizzy because he's "completely unmanageable without medication". I called mom, kid took his behavior meds, just forgot his allergy pill, cue miraculous turn around in behavior (for both teacher and student).

Babysitting is not the nurse's job, the person observing the "unmanageable behavior" needs to be the one relaying this to the parents.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.
Is the child truly unmanageable?

Or is the teacher freaking out because she/he knows the kid forgot his meds?

Yes! This!!

I sometimes wonder if the act of taking medication has a placebo effect for the teachers. I have kids that will be o timed medications who will be brought to me office at their medication admin time and the teacher will say something like "We came 10 minutes early because I don't think he/she got their meds this am and is OFF THE WALL!!" Without fail i admin the medication and almost immediately the teacher will say something like "That's so much better" or will call me with 10 minutes of admin saying he/she is so much better now and they can't believe the difference or something along those lines. Uh, yeah - the pills proooobably didn't take effect that quickly - and when I walked by the student was just as loud and annoying to the kid next to them as this morning -but you go on thinking what you need to to get through the day.

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Is the child truly unmanageable?

Or is the teacher freaking out because she/he knows the kid forgot his meds?

Valid point!!! Medicine becomes a crutch, an end all be all. Truth is, these kids usually suffer from so many other D's that no Ritalin is going to help.

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Just had this come up at work. No we are not responsible for calling and asking if the kid had their medication that day. Principal or teacher can call. We can call and verify that kid didn't get their med if kid states he didn't get his/her med i.e. "Hey mom Bob says they didn't her their medication this morning, is this correct?"

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