Sometimes I feel not needed..

[mrsfoster601]

Hello my fellow school nurses. Does anybody besides me feel not needed sometimes? The reason I feel this way...Ok the teachers have telephones in the classroom and sometimes I parents come up to the school saying that they got a call stating their child was sick and needed to be picked up. So the secretaries asked me did I call the parents. I'm looking like I haven't had a visit from that child all day. Come to find out, the teachers are calling from the classroom. I just feel like why am I here you don't need a nurse they have it all under control;) And when the teachers send the student up to see me with a note. The teachers would write for example: Bobby is sick check temp and call mom. I'm like ok... nurse teacher forget my assessment or opinion the decision is already made. Ok I'm done I was just wondering how some of you school nurses feel about the above.

[OldDude]

I've posted this before but if you remind the principal and staff they are personally responsible for the health and safety of the student if "the nurse" is not involved or informed of a illness, incident, injury, etc., it will go by the wayside pretty fast. I know my principal, in no way, wants to get attached to the liability of staff diagnosing kids and calling parents about medical issues. This is non-existent on my campus.

Flip side - I welcome collaboration from the staff regarding a student. They see those guys every day and are pretty good at nailing when one of them doesn't feel well. Then I will decide the next course of action.

[BeckyESRN]

Flip side - I welcome collaboration from the staff regarding a student. They see those guys every day and are pretty good at nailing when one of them doesn't feel well. Then I will decide the next course of action.

Very true! It makes my job easier if the teacher lets me know that the kid has been in the restroom 18 times today or skipped recess or whatever- the kids never tell me these kinds of things on their own. None of mine have ever called a parent to pick up a sick kid, thank goodness.

[NurseBeans, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

It might be worth mentioning that in both my personal and professional experience, I have noticed that teachers are the type of person who need to be right ALL THE TIME. They also seem to have control and power issues. If they think a kid is sick, and you say they aren't, then you must be wrong. Seems all experience and job titles and licenses just go out the window. I have chosen to allow them to behave this way unless it puts someone at risk, then I step in with my bossy nurse hat on and throw my weight around. It's worked so far. And I have less stress over who is right and who is in control because I know for sure that it's me, on both counts. Just be sure the office is getting the absence codes correct, and let the teachers know how an absence will be coded if they go around you to get a kid home.

[scuba nurse, BSN, MSN, RN]

thankfully my school doesn't have outside lines for phones and all calls go to the office, so teachers cannot send kids home without going thru me for illness. But yes I have gotten a note form a teacher "telling" me what to do, or the kid will say "my teachers said I am sick" or "my teacher said I just need some medicine". And most of the time they are NOT in fact sick enough to go home. The teacher is sick of dealing with them!

[Amethya]

Most of my problems are the STUDENTS are calling their parents from the teacher's phones or their cell phones and then I get calls from parents asking if I called so- so about child. And it's like, no. So when mom is here and student is coming down, I do some intervention telling the student that they should not do that anymore and tell the mom the only way they get picked up from being sick is if they come to me.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

Classroom phones at my school cannot dial to an outside line unless it is 911, thankfully.

Like OldDude said up thread, I do welcome collaboration from students and have called a teacher a few things to get a report on how a student has been acting in class. Teachers have also called me to check in prior to sending a student - but it took me a LONG time to get them there. Patience is a virtue, but it can be taught. But also, the high school teachers I work with are awesome about sending kids and checking in.

Now, the kids texting Mom/Dad from the bathroom that they are "sick," well...the office always checks in with me when a parent arrives to pick up a sick child. Because if they came through my office, I always call the main office to give them a heads up. When they haven't gotten that head's up, they know the kid texted. And I let our Dean take it from there :).