Ongoing lice problem

OldDude · Apr 17, 2018

I wish it was so easy forget about....we still send home for live lice & do head checks if 2+ cases in same class. I am so sick of it right now - in one grade level I have a large group of girls that all live on the same street, all do same after school activities and are close friends. Since January each of them, one at a time, have had lice - I have sent out the notice as required several times, done class head checks twice already. Parents and teachers keep coming at me like this problem is something I can fix.

Sorry Adobe!! You're right - YOU can't fix it. It's a parental responsibility; complete and total, and until your district becomes proactive instead of reactive and fanning the flames of hysteria it will never change. What a waste of time and energy!

Maybe at least address, or re-address, how you really don't have a reason or cause, to touch and look at every head in a classroom because one person in the class has lice...you don't go check every kid's temperature in that same class if one kid in there has fever! :banghead:

ABRN2012 · Apr 17, 2018

Maybe at least address, or re-address, how you really don't have a reason or cause, to touch and look at every head in a classroom because one person in the class has lice...you don't go check every kid's temperature in that same class if one kid in there has fever!

Yes!!!! I tell teachers that all the time. We dont care to let a raging case of strep throat lick and snot all over everything in the classroom but for heaven sake let someone "think" that they see an old empty louse nit hanging way down on someones hair. Mass hysteria! Call a CODE LOUSE! Check every kid, check the teacher, bug bomb the school!

I told all my staff until they started putting coats in backpacks to keep them from touching, get those stinking nasty rugs out of rooms 1st grade and up, teach kids about personal space, dont let them being lying around on top of each other (we are in school for goodness sake) and doing monthly checks on their class then what did they expect me to do about it honestly. Be proactive like OldDude said!

BeckyESRN · Apr 17, 2018

Maybe at least address, or re-address, how you really don't have a reason or cause, to touch and look at every head in a classroom because one person in the class has lice...you don't go check every kid's temperature in that same class if one kid in there has fever!

YES! OldDude you win best comment of the day; all the stale saltines you can eat!

cmefford · Apr 17, 2018

This is one of the most frustrating things I have to deal with!!! I have one family that has multiple children (5+), for the last 4 school years they have been infested with lice! The first year I treated 4 of the kids at least 5 times (mom was pregnant and refused to treat them), there was one not school aged still at home, not being treated.

I did call DFS NUMEROUS times!!! They would go out and offer services to the family (which they never accepted).

I continue to periodically (once every three or four months) check them, if they have live lice they are sent home. Once treated they can come back. I make sure that the girl has her hair pulled up everyday and her belongings are on a hook with no other coats around them (our teachers are pretty discreet). It is well known in her class that she has it because she chooses to not keep it a secret. I do not make it a point to check them daily or weekly any longer, because it really does me no good and is a complete waste of my time, since mom refuses to care for them.

I do not do complete class checks unless I have more than 4 kids in the same class with it. I have had to do that twice since I have been here, both times were in the first two years and in the above mention kids classrooms....

I understand that the CDC states that this is not a "disease", and it is considered just a nuisance, but I can tell you, I have been ripped up one side and down the other over kids that have gotten lice numerous times, been treated numerous times and continue to get it from "school". I am informed that it is "extremely expensive" to treat numerous times, especially when "the kids that keep passing it have medicaid, and can get their treatment free".

I do feel it is unfair to the parents that treat and three months later have to do it again because their child was forced into a bus seat with one of the kids that are not treated....but as a school nurse....what do you do?

I have tried to get admin to agree to, no live lice, nits ok (which is our current policy), but add if after three weeks there are still nits, the child is excluded from school until nits are gone...specifically because we have those kids that parents refuse to do anything about it. I explained, for the millionth time, that until we put responsibility back on the parents this is going to continue to be an issue, although they stated they agree, the idea was "shot down", mainly because they know they will "lose money" if the kiddo is not in school.

OldDude · Apr 17, 2018

This is one of the most frustrating things I have to deal with!!!...but as a school nurse....what do you do?

Don't take ownership of this issue. This isn't your problem to fix. You can educate until the cows come home but it's a parental responsibility.

Regarding the school policies of "No live lice," but nits are OK. How, exactly do you identify if a nit is viable or not? How can you tell, by the "naked" eye if that nit is an empty sac or it's getting ready to hatch a nymph louse? So, If you allow nits, you are allowing live lice that just haven't grown up enough to see crawling around the scalp yet.

It took several years, and we still the occasional hysterical parent, but we have less parent complaints about head lice now that we don't exclude kids from school. The prevalence of lice has remained unchanged from the time when we excluded for lice versus now when we don't exclude. Head lice gonna be there from now until the end of time.

djh123 · Apr 17, 2018

Just a related comment. This blew my mind. In my previous LTC/rehab facility, sometimes we'd get someone from a hospital who had pressure ulcers, or hadn't been changed any time recently. But a CNA at my new job told me that at her previous LTC facility, they'd gotten someone from a hospital that had lice all over their head, dropping onto the pillow, etc. as soon as they transferred her. !!! I find it extremely hard to believe that no one noticed that at the hospital.

Amethya · Apr 18, 2018

Sorry Adobe!! You're right - YOU can't fix it. It's a parental responsibility; complete and total, and until your district becomes proactive instead of reactive and fanning the flames of hysteria it will never change. What a waste of time and energy!
Maybe at least address, or re-address, how you really don't have a reason or cause, to touch and look at every head in a classroom because one person in the class has lice...you don't go check every kid's temperature in that same class if one kid in there has fever!

I wish you were my principal. Exactly this but they don't care and just want to make my job harder.

MrsK_Nurse · Apr 19, 2018

Just a little update/rant!

I had settled with the fact that there was pretty much nothing more that I could do at this point. I mean we've had this issue all year, we have 28 days left.

I can't fix them all, right?

CPS was called by someone (they had an open case already) Social Worker said that mom couldn't afford more lice treatments right now and she was going to buy them out of pocket for mom, she relayed this to the principal who volunteered to buy them herself and she also threw in there that she would have the nurse do them at school today. I was just informed this. I was livid this morning. I've told her several times that I cannot do lice treatments at school for legal reasons and that I did not recommend for any staff member to do them. (Mom did not even know that this was happening)

The worst part is, is that she didn't even tell me this herself. I came in today to lice treatments on my desk and was told by the secretary that CPS said that I needed to do them. Principal isn't here today to address this with her. :banghead:

OldDude · Apr 19, 2018

Just a little update/rant!
I had settled with the fact that there was pretty much nothing more that I could do at this point. I mean we've had this issue all year, we have 28 days left.
I can't fix them all, right?
CPS was called by someone (they had an open case already) Social Worker said that mom couldn't afford more lice treatments right now and she was going to buy them out of pocket for mom, she relayed this to the principal who volunteered to buy them herself and she also threw in there that she would have the nurse do them at school today. I was just informed this. I was livid this morning. I've told her several times that I cannot do lice treatments at school for legal reasons and that I did not recommend for any staff member to do them. (Mom did not even know that this was happening)
The worst part is, is that she didn't even tell me this herself. I came in today to lice treatments on my desk and was told by the secretary that CPS said that I needed to do them. Principal isn't here today to address this with her.

Ya just can't fix stupid. I'm assuming the lice treatment will remain unopened while in your posession...

MrsK_Nurse · Apr 19, 2018

I will not be touching that lice treatment with a 10 foot pole.

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · Apr 19, 2018

I will not be touching that lice treatment with a 10 foot pole.

I am going to assume this is the OTC treatment, yes? Which may or may not work anyway at this point. Hang in there. I'm confident you've done your best at this point!

MrNurse(x2), ADN · Apr 19, 2018

Treating the children is a temporary stopgap, without the parents being treated, it will only persist. This family will forever remain infested. Maybe they can't afford pets and these are low maintenance and no cost? Sorry for the social impact this will have on the children.