Hi! I’m a new school nurse. I’m currently in a long term substitute position for a K-5 school. I've been at this school for 3 weeks now so I've gotten the feel for everything and have my routine down. I have noticed a large problem with students coming to my clinic faking illnesses, especially vomiting. I have at least 5 students a day come and say they threw up in the bathroom. I try my best to follow the “if you didn’t see it happen it probably didn't” rule. 90% of the time this works out for me. Give them some tums and crackers and they are fine and don’t return.
This past Friday I was slammed busy, like every Friday. A teacher sent a student in at lunch saying he vomited in the bathroom. Well this students sister I actually sent home at the very beginning of the school day for strep throat symptoms and fever. He heard wind of his sister being sent home and I’m 99% sure he was faking just trying to go home. The kid was acting completely fine, talking other kids ears off in the clinic and playing around with another student. So I gave him some tums and sent him back to class. No fever or anything. Not even 10 minutes later he comes back and says he doesn’t feel any better and wants to go home. So I decide to call mom, not to send him home but just to talk to her about the situation. No answer but left a voicemail so I sent the student back to class again waiting for a call back. I got a call back about 20 minutes later and I told her the whole situation and she agreed that he is just trying to go home early as he overheard her talking to his sister that morning saying that if she felt worse during the day to go to the nurse. I was about to pick up the phone and call the students teacher and tell her what was said when she walks into the clinic with the student and demands that I send him home. I told her what the mother said and asked if anyone actually witnessed the student vomiting and she said no. I then explained that if it wasn’t witnessed, no fever and he’s acting completely fine there is no reason to send him home. She then goes over my head and asks the principal about it and she said to send him home so I eventually ended up doing so. Mind you it was one hour until school was over. I was so furious. This is why I have so many students coming to the clinic. They see one get away with it and the teacher enables it so they all do it. I want to confront the teacher about it but I’m unsure what to say.
Why in the world do all these children want to get out/away from school, esp the ones who are frequent flyers? It sounds like a mass exodus of kids trying to escape the institution. What are they wanting to leave so badly? Why so many?
Because school is hard and you have to do work; Home is easy and fun and kids are not held to their responsibilities anymore. School avoidance this year has skyrocketed!
Why in the world do all these children want to get out/away from school, esp the ones who are frequent flyers? It sounds like a mass exodus of kids trying to escape the institution. What are they wanting to leave so badly? Why so many?
You have to think most of the elementary school children the past 2 years have been used to virtual learning where they were not closely supervised and made to do their work. And most of the kindergarten kids have probably never be in a structured setting, that they can remember, since Covid happened. Covid has ruined learning in schools.
Home is easy and fun and kids are not held to their responsibilities anymore.
16 minutes ago, MsNurse1997 said:
You have to think most of the elementary school children the past 2 years have been used to virtual learning where they were not closely supervised and made to do their work. And most of the kindergarten kids have probably never be in a structured setting, that they can remember, since Covid happened
So are you saying that they want to continue with non-structured learning?
It has nothing to do Covid.. I am old...but I remember being so BORED in school. This was before advanced placement was even on the horizon. I spent endless hours listening to the teacher try to get to Ricky and John to learn.
I learned that "I Love Lucy" was on at 0900. Beverly Hillbillies at 0900, Dick Van Dyke show at 1000. And......if there was homework, I got it done in 30 minutes....versus listening to the teacher trying to get Ricky and John learn.
Here is the oddest thing....John took a fancy to me (3rd grade) followed me home many days and threw candy to me via the fence!
So are you saying that they want to continue with non-structured learning?
It has nothing to do Covid.. I am old...but I remember being so BORED in school. This was before advanced placement was even on the horizon. I spent endless hours listening to the teacher try to get to Ricky and John to learn.
I learned that "I Love Lucy" was on at 0900. Beverly Hillbillies at 0900, Dick Van Dyke show at 1000. And......if there was homework, I got it done in 30 minutes....versus listening to the teacher trying to get Ricky and John learn.
Here is the oddest thing....John took a fancy to me (3rd grade) followed me home many days and threw candy to me via the fence!
The older kids (3rd-5th grade) have literally told me they miss being virtual and want to go back to that. Their reasoning? They could get all their work done in a hour and goof off and do whatever they want the rest of the day. And that’s all fine and dandy if they are actually learning but they aren’t! Most of the kids are one or two grade levels behind right now and it’s a direct correlation to the instruction time that was missed the past 2 years during virtual learning. Our school has the data posted in the teacher work room. They update it every month. The point is kids would much rather be at home than be at school being told what to do. I’ve talked to several other school nurses and they all say the amount of students they see and the amount of “fakers” has drastically went up over the past year or two.
You have to think most of the elementary school children the past 2 years have been used to virtual learning where they were not closely supervised and made to do their work. And most of the kindergarten kids have probably never be in a structured setting, that they can remember, since Covid happened. Covid has ruined learning in schools.
Yeah, but frequent flyers pre-dated the pandemic, for sure.
At the end of the day, it's not up to me to determine if a student is over-exaggerating or making up symptoms. If a kid says they're too sick to be here, I'll gladly call home. If the parent shuts it down, then we're done.
on a side note, I feel somewhat empowered by covid precautions to get a bit more loosely goosey with sending my frequent fliers out. There's a lot of "be careful what you wish for, cause you may get it" going on around here. Frequent fliers coming in and rattling off a laundry list of symptoms? Sure - you have just talked yourself into a covid test and now your little sister gets to go home too, until your results come back. It usually only takes one or two times of having to go through that whole process for the parents to have a little talk about appropriate nurse's office usage.
Sure - you have just talked yourself into a covid test and now your little sister gets to go home too, until your results come back. It usually only takes one or two times of having to go through that whole process for the parents to have a little talk about appropriate nurse's office usage.
At the end of the day, it's not up to me to determine if a student is over-exaggerating or making up symptoms. If a kid says they're too sick to be here, I'll gladly call home. If the parent shuts it down, then we're done.
on a side note, I feel somewhat empowered by covid precautions to get a bit more loosely goosey with sending my frequent fliers out. There's a lot of "be careful what you wish for, cause you may get it" going on around here. Frequent fliers coming in and rattling off a laundry list of symptoms? Sure - you have just talked yourself into a covid test and now your little sister gets to go home too, until your results come back. It usually only takes one or two times of having to go through that whole process for the parents to have a little talk about appropriate nurse's office usage.
I have to say, I disagree with the above; It IS up to me whether or not a kid goes home... What's the point of having a clinically educated nurse if the kid or the parent is the one who makes the decisions regarding them coming or going? And what is the child learning if they get to go home every time they want to? Especially if a parent is a pushover who will drop everything to pick little darling up for every sniffle. My goal is to KEEP kids in school. I can recognize when a kid is really not well vs. when they're just trying to get out of something. Sometimes, the not feeling well is a mental health not feeling well, and I recognize that and will send home occasionally, but 9 times out of 10, the kid doesn't like math or got into an argument with a friend and has decided the best way out of it is to say they have a vague stomach ache. This has been going on far longer that can be blamed on remote learning, BTW. I WAS THAT KID!!
What we teach kids in elementary school sticks - if they grow up learning that you don't have to do work whenever you don't want to, guess who ends up calling out of work for every little thing and who ends up fired and who ends up in poverty. Teaching resilience through supportive intervention is my jam.
On the whole, how has it been received by the affected families?
overall the families have been understanding and compliant.
2 hours ago, k1p1ssk said:
I have to say, I disagree with the above; It IS up to me whether or not a kid goes home... What's the point of having a clinically educated nurse if the kid or the parent is the one who makes the decisions regarding them coming or going? And what is the child learning if they get to go home every time they want to? Especially if a parent is a pushover who will drop everything to pick little darling up for every sniffle. My goal is to KEEP kids in school. I can recognize when a kid is really not well vs. when they're just trying to get out of something. Sometimes, the not feeling well is a mental health not feeling well, and I recognize that and will send home occasionally, but 9 times out of 10, the kid doesn't like math or got into an argument with a friend and has decided the best way out of it is to say they have a vague stomach ache. This has been going on far longer that can be blamed on remote learning, BTW. I WAS THAT KID!!
What we teach kids in elementary school sticks - if they grow up learning that you don't have to do work whenever you don't want to, guess who ends up calling out of work for every little thing and who ends up fired and who ends up in poverty. Teaching resilience through supportive intervention is my jam.
I should clarify - I still assess and if I don't think the child is presenting with a complaint that warrants excusal or exclusion, then they are instructed to head back to class. I tend to employ the accelerated call home technique for malingering repeat offenders (usually, after the third visit, I'll call, but sometimes sooner, depending on the kid), prefacing my call that the child is fine and should be kept in school, but that I wanted to alert them that their kiddo has been in multiple times that day with the same complaint. This accomplishes 2 things - the parent gets to gauge the frequency of their child's visits and if the parent elects not to come and get their kid, which is usually the case, it curtails repeated visits. I deal with a lot of parents who will get upset if I don't call for everything and then get equally upset if I call for everything. I totally agree with the notion that learning resilience is key.
nursekoll, BSN, RN
141 Posts
Because school is hard and you have to do work; Home is easy and fun and kids are not held to their responsibilities anymore. School avoidance this year has skyrocketed!