Sick kids and nursing school

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i'm so happy i found you guys! what a wonderful resource for everybody! i didn't start nursing school yet, and still, after reading all your stories feel i know so much already!. thank you

i just received my letter of acceptance from the local adn program! :bow::yeah:i start on august 20th! if you wouldn't mind i have a couple of questions for you:

1 for moms with young children - what do you do when your kids get sick? mine (age 5 and 9) get sick quite a bit, with high fevers and such. 104 or 105 is a common thing in my house during a flu season. until now i tried to manage my prereq's around them and so far when they were sick my instructors were very understanding. but nursing school is different. i do have somebody that will help me with taking care of them when they are home. it's not family, but it's a help. my question is how do you cope when they are really sick? i understand how important attendance for nursing school. but is there really no room for emergencies like these? how did you moms cope? what did you do in situations like this? moms, share your stories, please.

2. changing gears here - to how do you study. i've read on this board about enormous quantities of reading of material that you cover in short period of time. along with all the other important busy work of nursing school. many of you wrote that you make flashcards and rewrite your notes, something i've been doing myself in prereq's. what i was wondering about is - after you've done your reading (i'm a slow reader) and assigned work, how can you still find time for making flashcards and rewriting notes? what are your secrets?

thanks for sharing.

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I have the same concerns, I have 3 children (9,7,3) and though they are relatively healthy children, they each still get sick so that can mean quite a few missed days.

I won't start a program until Fall 2009 but this is one of the reasons I'm doing it online...that way I don't have to worry about the kids being sick and missing class. I will still have to work out clinicals if they are sick but that will be easier to work around. I don't have much of a support system, my husband is home on weekends so I'm hoping to do clinicals on Saturdays.

As far as studying, take your flashcards everywhere!!! I flip through mine at the doctor's office, sitting in the dentist chair (waiting), in the car, waiting to pick the kids' up, at the park while the kids play, etc. To catch some extra study time during the day you can put on the kids' favorite movie. I'm not sure what your views are on kids and tv but I'm going to what I have to do to get some extra study time.

Good luck with your classes, you can do it.

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Specializes in Dialysis, Long-term care, Med-Surg.

Hello.

I would suggest you talk with the nursing dept and find out how much you can miss w/o getting in trouble or on probation. Always stay up or ahead on your assignments when you can and build a rapport with your teachers. I have four little ones (kids) by the way. It's just me and my husband in the state we live in, our families live 7 hours away, and we rotate if the kids get sick.

Also, if you have family or friends, that you trust and are close to you, get them on board to help.

God Bless!:nuke:

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Specializes in Acute Care of the Elderly.

Well I have 4 children. They are 11, 7, and the twins are 5. We can not really miss at all. If you miss a day with a quiz or test you are screwed. They do not allow you to make up any of that stuff. My husband is a Pharmacist and has been known to take them to work on these occasions. I then pick them up when I am finished with class. Not ideal but it is working for now. As far as studying I am up really early and I stay up really late most of the time. I am a second semester student and I have been running on 5 maybe 6 hours of sleep for this whole school year. I imagine it will be the same throughout the second year too. I also study at soccer, ballet, basketball etc. I have learned to studay through Bob the Builder and other shows. If you want it bad enough you find a way:nuke: Good Luck!

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My ns didn't show any special consideration for moms with sick kids. They just didn't condone absences much at all. Many people used to miss classroom attendance on a frequent basis. Toward the end of my program, the school started to crack down on this because the school lost money from the state when all enrolled students weren't present, so instructors started to do things that were dependent upon attendance. Clinical always had a strict attendance policy. You really need to make some kind of arrangement so that this doesn't become a problem for you. Hope you can come up with something that works for you.

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Hi.

You'll have to check out the nursing student handbook when you get it. There will be specific guidelines on how much you can miss, and what will happen if you miss more than the alotted time.

I'd really recommend taping into resources, family to watch the kids if sick, emergency babysitter, mom2mom groups etc, even other students on campus that don't have the same classes as you, would be more than happy to pick up a couple extra bucks for watching the kids if you need it.

I've found the majority of nursing schools are really strict. But, you can usually miss lecture courses (unless it's a test/quiz day). Clinicals are almost impossible to miss (we are only allowed 1 per semester and we hold onto it like its gold in case we do have a problem).

Good luck & welcome to the boards

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Like others have said each school is a bit different but both my LPN and now my RN school have almost no tolerance for absences no matter the reason. They really hit the ceiling when a student got pregnant, lol. I'd find someone that is willing to care for your children when they get sick now so your biggest worry will be being dog tired in class from being up all night with them. Good luck!

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I recommend a flu shot and vitamins for your kids first off ,and strict handwashing teaching also ( little kids are so bad about this!). We don't have a strict policy on class attendance at my school, they don't even take attendance every day just 1 or 2 times a semester. You have to call in before a test day though, or you fail that exam. Clinicals is another matter, we can only miss one, we better call ahead of time, and we have to make it up before the end of the semester to pass. Good luck to you!:D

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I have 3 kids myself, the rule in my house "If you don't listen and get sick b/c you didn't wash hands, take your vitamins, or wear the proper clothes like I told you before I peeled out in the morning, YOU will nurse yourself back to health!!!!"

Sounds harsh I know. I have children that are old enough to take responsibilty and guess what they need to now. I explained to the family when I started this that there is no SICK DAYS, for me or them b/c it could mean this $$$$ went out the door b/c you or I did not take care of ourselfs.

We are a team!! I am putting my time in guess what they need to, too.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
I have 3 kids myself, the rule in my house "If you don't listen and get sick b/c you didn't wash hands, take your vitamins, or wear the proper clothes like I told you before I peeled out in the morning, YOU will nurse yourself back to health!!!!"

Sounds harsh I know. I have children that are old enough to take responsibilty and guess what they need to now. I explained to the family when I started this that there is no SICK DAYS, for me or them b/c it could mean this $$$$ went out the door b/c you or I did not take care of ourselfs.

We are a team!! I am putting my time in guess what they need to, too.

Love this! I told DH once that nursing school ain't for sissies and he replied "yeah or sissy families either I guess". We had to laugh. Hang in there.

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Specializes in Tele Step Down, Oncology, ICU, Med/Surg.

I had a real problem with sick kids this Spring--allergies turned into all sorts of ear and upper respiratory infections. Have no family nearby that I can turn to.

Lectures you can miss, but nursing school lectures are dense with nclex type stuff so you will be missing a ton of important test material. Try to find a friend who tapes and listen to the lecture. Go over the slides and do your reading carefully for that lecture--other lectures you can skim read more, but you can't do that for a lecture you miss.

Clinicals you can't miss, so my husband--who is the primary wage earner--had to stay home from an important meeting with clients in order to BBsit a sick kid. Skills lab you really should try hard not to miss, but usually my instructors were good about letting you catch up with another skills lab class.

If my four year old gets sick, someone has to stay home. We've been leaving the 13 and 9 year old home alone and my husband and I would come home at breaks/lunches to check up on things. Also used the phone heavily. It helps if you have nice neighbors nearby that you can notify that you have a child home alone and to keep an eye out--also to give the child a safe place to go if they are just feeling overwhelmed until you can get to them.

What really sucked was when I got sick--and had to continue on through clinicals, pharm test and carpooling feeding and caring for the kids. Swear I am still recovering from that 8 weeks later.

Good luck!

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At my school, you can only miss 10% of class (theory and lecture) before they ask you to leave. And that's not a whole lot considering my classes run 8 weeks each. And as far as clinical- well they SAY you can miss one, but it's frowned upon. One lady decided she didn't want to be at clinical last Thursday. Though she was excused, I don't think my clinical instructor was real happy she missed.

My kids are 14 and 11. And they've both been sick this year while I was in school. The youngest was lucky b/c she decided to get sick over my spring break (2nd year in a row- sigh). But at least I wasn't leaving her alone all day (she's only in 5th grade).

Oldest decided to get sick last week. The first day she was sick, I didn't have school. Which was good, she was running a temp and spent a large portion of the day sleeping on the couch. Not that there is a whole lot I can do to help her at that point, I just feel guilty leaving her home for a long time feeling like that.

She insisted on going back to school the next day (even though I told her to stay home). Well, an hour before I needed to be at clinical, the school calls, tells me she wants to come home :bugeyes: I got her, she came home, and I left for clinical. I felt bad, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do.

If one of the kids was REALLY sick, my husband has enough vacation days this year that he could stay home with them.

My biggest worry is that the school's going to call me to say someone's sick, and I'm not going to be able to leave clinicals to get them. Thankfully I have a neighbor that works in the school system, close to where the kids go to school, and I know if I called her in an emergency, she'd go and get my kids- if my husband couldn't get them.

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