Surprise, Surprise... COVID Contacts after Thanksgiving... great!

[Amethya]

Heyy.... I'm back again! I miss you guys! I hope things are okay... I'm happy at my job, 6 schools is alright to handle... currently doing classes for Nursing School.

Vent time!

I'm back from Thanksgiving break... guess what? In my first school of the week, we have 9 POSITIVE CASES! They are calling us and are like "We visited family during the break and now we are positive!" and it's like... duh? So yeah... not the only school sadly.

Just waiting for things to go down and close down the schools because... cheese on crackers... what the hell? So today we are just filling out contact tracing forms and sending it to the Ones Above Us and they can deal with this poop show. We also are losing CAs this semester, like new people are just leaving after their first day. We are hoping for new 10 CAs, but nothing yet.

Besides that... I been fine, just busy at work and at home with my new puppy. 

Here's hoping we can survive another 3 weeks. 3 weeks until Christmas Break!

How's things in your states? 

[Mavnurse17, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, SchoolNurseK said:

It's the same here in Florida.  Our governor told us we will NOT be closing.  I am so torn because I know the kids do better here, but then we have a community that does not act like it is important by the way they conduct their day to day lives.  I am so frustrated with the position it puts all of us in every single day.

Same for our governor here in Texas.  The Texas Education Agency is actually the co-captain running the show.  They've essentially said districts will lose funding if they go virtual again; only recently have the amended that to say they'll give partial funding if schools have to close due to staffing shortages. 

I know and understand the arguments for kids being in-person, and I empathize.  But, to put it in perspective, I'm now recovering from having Covid at 32 weeks pregnant because I was exposed here at school by either teachers/staff that came in sick or the students that were sent to school sick and ended up coming to see me.  I can't think of anywhere else that I picked it up because I'm very careful about excess exposure.  Luckily my case was one of the 'mild' ones, though it made me feel crummy for the whole 10 days, but others are not as lucky.

My point is, it's dangerous out here, and to have so little flexibility when it comes to safety and lives, it's frustrating.  

[BooBooCrew, BSN, RN]

Maybe it's just us in Texas where there's little no concern for the virus and everyone tries to keep it a secret if they feel bad - we have no new cases and only a handful of students with symptoms. That being the case honestly scares me more because I think how much am I missing/not being told? 

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

On 12/2/2020 at 4:00 PM, Mavnurse17 said:

I know and understand the arguments for kids being in-person, and I empathize.  But, to put it in perspective, I'm now recovering from having Covid at 32 weeks pregnant because I was exposed here at school by either teachers/staff that came in sick or the students that were sent to school sick and ended up coming to see me.  I can't think of anywhere else that I picked it up because I'm very careful about excess exposure.  Luckily my case was one of the 'mild' ones, though it made me feel crummy for the whole 10 days, but others are not as lucky.

My point is, it's dangerous out here, and to have so little flexibility when it comes to safety and lives, it's frustrating.  

Oh dear LORT that's scary. I am glad you are recovering. Hang in there.

7 hours ago, BooBooCrew said:

Maybe it's just us in Texas where there's little no concern for the virus and everyone tries to keep it a secret if they feel bad - we have no new cases and only a handful of students with symptoms. That being the case honestly scares me more because I think how much am I missing/not being told? 

You may not be missing any of them. A bunch of our kids are likely to be asymptomatic. Which is why I have the over-under for next Wednesday in my district. That may be the tipping point for when kids get our staff sick, something that we had managed to avoid (based on our dashboard) for months.

[Amethya]

15 hours ago, ruby_jane said:

Oh dear LORT that's scary. I am glad you are recovering. Hang in there.

You may not be missing any of them. A bunch of our kids are likely to be asymptomatic. Which is why I have the over-under for next Wednesday in my district. That may be the tipping point for when kids get our staff sick, something that we had managed to avoid (based on our dashboard) for months.

Here in my district in Texas,  we been telling teachers that if any student is acting sick to bring them to us straight away. Basically, we will find out pretty quick, because we have 3 options for parents, either A) they go to the doctor and get a note that is very detailed and says what the child has is not covid but an alt diagnosis. B) They get COVID tested and bring the test results back and are neg. C) they stay 10 days at home. (Guess which one gets parents pissed and cussing at me?!) 

So when we call parents, then we learn the truth. "Kid was sick but he got better and its not COVID". NOpe still doing the protocol, come get your kid.

Now if the kid is positive, we are still doing the 14 days until our Powers to BE decide what is our new protocols. 

So no parents are going to hide anything from us, at all. But parents are being cooperative now and are actually doing the testing before telling us and are keeping kids at home more now. And are telling us if they got positive on COVID too.

But in the beginning? Nope.

 

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

On 12/2/2020 at 9:20 AM, ruby_jane said:

I'm laughing but it's not funny. I heard a parent say "Well it's running through our school but it's a good thing. Best to get it over with."

Fortunately she was not in conversation with me. 

Oh, boy. Does she think it's like head lice??

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, Jedrnurse said:

Oh, boy. Does she think it's like head lice??

Or the new Chicken Pox. Let's have your COVID+ positive kid play with with my kid, so they get it and move on. Never mind if they bring it home to grandma and she dies from it...

UGH. There is a reason they don't even do that anymore and there is a required varicella vaccine.

(And the with COVID vaccine on the horizon to come kids way in the next 6 months or so, I fully expect my state to mandate and I fully expect to fight many more battles. )

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

On 12/2/2020 at 2:32 PM, MHDNURSE said:

How do they manage with so many staff out?  That is my fear here-there is no way they can find enough subs to cover.

At my school they're allowing HS teachers to teach virtually with no staff in the classroom.  Only about 50% of our HS kids come in--most opt for virtual at home.  At this point our principal is subbing for MS/HS classes most of the day.  Our VP taught PE & kindergarten this week.  

[SchoolNurseK, BSN, RN]

On 12/3/2020 at 9:40 AM, BooBooCrew said:

everyone tries to keep it a secret if they feel bad

Just put the puzzle pieces together and realized a group of parents were essentially lying to me about an exposure.  It makes me wonder how many times this has already happened and I didn't figure it out.  It's maddening!

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, SchoolNurseK said:

Just put the puzzle pieces together and realized a group of parents were essentially lying to me about an exposure.  It makes me wonder how many times this has already happened and I didn't figure it out.  It's maddening!

COVID shame is so real. Getting COVID can feel like having an STI. Neither should carry shame, but they do. We are now trying a new PSA campaign here trying to lift the stigma so folks are more honest. 

(Of course, shame aside, some folks will not be truthful just so their kid can go to school so they can go to work. Which is another whole kinda of suck on several levels.)

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

28 minutes ago, JenTheSchoolRN said:

(Of course, shame aside, some folks will not be truthful just so their kid can go to school so they can go to work. Which is another whole kinda of suck on several levels.)

I mean, I "liked" the post but I don't like it at all. But I like how you said it.

[Mavnurse17, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, SchoolNurseK said:

Just put the puzzle pieces together and realized a group of parents were essentially lying to me about an exposure.  It makes me wonder how many times this has already happened and I didn't figure it out.  It's maddening!

Maybe I'm jaded from handling Covid stuff 40+ hours every week for the last 4 months, but in my eyes you can't do anything about things you don't have knowledge of, especially if it was a calculated lie by the parents and not just an "oops I forgot to tell you" thing.  I'd escalate this up to my admin and wash my hands of it. 

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, Mavnurse17 said:

 I'd escalate this up to my admin and wash my hands of it. 

(20 seconds, singing The Macarena at the top of my lungs).... ??