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?
