Teacher Issue...

[CarlyCastaneda]

I'm mainly just venting, but I'm also wondering what others would do in this situation. I had a teacher send in a student complaining of arm pain. The student was pointing to a small area in the crease of his elbow saying that it was hurting him. He was acting like he was in a lot of pain for it for a minute or so, but then was acting normal and not complaining about it. I assessed him and sent him back to class. There was nothing significant to note. Not even redness. About an hour or so later, the teacher comes back in with the student and says that his arm is getting worse and is swelling so he called his mom and his mom is on the way to pick him up. There was nothing...and I mean, nothing on his arm. It was not swollen. No pain. No red. His mom arrived within a few minutes before I was able to call her because I was dealing with another situation. I hear the mom call the front office that she was here because "the teacher said my son may be having an allergic reaction." I was furious. I went straight outside to the mom and apologized and told her not to panic. She said she had seen an ambulance and was scared her son was in it. The student walked out to the mom and I explained the situation. She took her son home anyway because she thought maybe he was having a bad day and didn't want to be there, but was just as confused as I was about why she was notified that she needs to pick him up.  How would you go about talking to this teacher? Do I just let it go? My two main issues is that 1. He went over my authority as the health professional in the school. and 2. He "diagnosed" a student, leading a parent into complete panic mode. 

[Mavnurse17, BSN, RN]

I often daydream about what I'd like to do in these scenarios.  Most recently the thought I have is to pull up the BON website and ask the teacher/administrator/TA/whoever what their RN license number is.  When they'd stare at me blankly or say "what??" I'd say "because I just wanted to see if you've been a nurse longer than I have."  One can dream ?

In all seriousness, I feeeeel your frustration and I'd escalate this up to my administrator if I were you.  

[caliotter3]

Discuss this with the administrator.  Perhaps they need to remind the teachers of their appropriate actions in such situations.  Try not to make it your fight with the individual teacher. 

[NurseBlaq]

My son has pulled the I'm sick and don't want to be in school game. I asked the nurse is he dying and about to fall out by the time I get there? She said no, I said send him back to class. She put him on the phone and I told him that he better not go back into that office unless he's 2 seconds from dying. Never had that problem again. Me and the school nurse were cool after that. She'd only call me if it was absolutely necessary which was only when she needed medical forms and an asthma action plan for his inhaler at the start of the school year.

[amoLucia]

1 hour ago, Mavnurse17 said:

I often daydream about what I'd like to do in these scenarios.  Most recently the thought I have is to pull up the BON website and ask the teacher/administrator/TA/whoever what their RN license number is.  When they'd stare at me blankly or say "what??" I'd say "because I just wanted to see if you've been a nurse longer than I have."  "I believe you're ILLEGALLY practicing nursing WITHOUT a license!"  One can dream ?

In all seriousness, I feeeeel your frustration and I'd escalate this up to my administrator if I were you.  

Sorry, but I just had to add the bolded sentence to your wise response.

Where do they get off pulling that kind of stuff! Like PPs, take up the issue with your Admin. Your 2 reasons are so spot-on right!

[k1p1ssk, BSN, RN]

Definitely needs to be addressed with Admin. I think in that moment, if I had been able to (it sounds like this wasn't an option for you), I would have asked that teacher to come out and show me what they meant by "swelling" and let them listen to the parent's panic. 

In our school district, with the exception of very basic first aid (I'm talking supervising cleaning of small cuts and applying bandaids), if the nurse is in the building, a teacher has no authority to send a student home for a medical reason. We actually have a policy in place called "Staff Rendering First Aid in the Absence of the Nurse" and that guides what a teacher or other staff member can do / should do in various common scenarios. 

And if you don't already, we make all of our staff and teachers complete epi-pen training at the beginning of the school year. This helps educate on allergic reactions, what constitutes an emergency, etc. It sounds like that teacher definitely needs some education.

The snarky nurse in me thinks you should burst into his classroom and begin to teach over him. And then do it again several hours later after he asks you to leave...

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

Agree with those above.  Go to admin.  That's infuriating that the teacher believes they have the authority to go over you, around you, and scare a parent.  Wonder how they'd feel about you barging in and scream-teaching over them during a lesson?

[tining, BSN, RN]

Ask for time at the beginning of the school year to go over with teachers health office expectations.  I tell them do not allow students to call sick from their room or take it upon themselves.  If they have questions about why I sent back, they should call/ask me.  I then tell them they are taking LIABILITY upon themselves and instead it should be upon you.  Not that there is liability, but it sounds legal.  What would have happened if panicked mom had a wreck on the way there to find nothing?  Teacher would be the one to point to.  

I would also follow up with the student and mom ASAP.  If kid was faking then this is a good lesson for the LD.

[NurseInTheHall, ADN, RN]

5 hours ago, k1p1ssk said:

policy in place called "Staff Rendering First Aid in the Absence of the Nurse" and that guides what a teacher or other staff member can do / should do in various common scenarios. 

This is GENIUS level policy writing. Why have I not done this before??? Adding to my back to school planning and submitting to amend our health policy now. Thank you! ?????

[lifelearningrn, BSN, RN]

We have a pretty strict rule against teachers calling parents to pick up their kids. When they do it, the front office first ask me if I called the parent, and when I say no, all hell breaks loose! (Okay, not really, but the clerks notify admins and a strongly worded email gets sent to all the teachers reminding them that they are NEVER, under any circumstance, supposed to call a parent to pick up their child!)

I've had it happen a hand full of times over the years. Usually it's a kid that was never even sent to the office to see me..   but I do get bent out of shape when a teacher calls the parent after I've assessed the kid and sent them back to class.  

Don't let it go. Have a conversation with the teacher.  

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

On 5/13/2021 at 5:46 PM, NurseBlaq said:

My son has pulled the I'm sick and don't want to be in school game. I asked the nurse is he dying and about to fall out by the time I get there? She said no, I said send him back to class. She put him on the phone and I told him that he better not go back into that office unless he's 2 seconds from dying. Never had that problem again. Me and the school nurse were cool after that. She'd only call me if it was absolutely necessary which was only when she needed medical forms and an asthma action plan for his inhaler at the start of the school year.

You are my kind of parent. I did the same thing with both of my children... If I had to come get them, they better be close to death... I always had great relationships with their school nurses they knew they could send them back to class without getting complaint calls.. .. 

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

21 hours ago, lifelearningrn said:

We have a pretty strict rule against teachers calling parents to pick up their kids. When they do it, the front office first ask me if I called the parent, and when I say no, all hell breaks loose! (Okay, not really, but the clerks notify admins and a strongly worded email gets sent to all the teachers reminding them that they are NEVER, under any circumstance, supposed to call a parent to pick up their child!)

I've had it happen a hand full of times over the years. Usually it's a kid that was never even sent to the office to see me..   but I do get bent out of shape when a teacher calls the parent after I've assessed the kid and sent them back to class.  

Don't let it go. Have a conversation with the teacher.  

I'm in a high school and I simply cannot get the teachers to stop that, especially the Special ED teachers. They called a parent to pick up a kid who had blood mixed in his dark tarry stool because he didn't look right.. I didn't find out about that for 2 weeks. The poor kid had a GI bleed and was in the hospital. I blew up.....But, the practice goes on despite the admin having a strongly worded discussion with them.