Teachers

My coworkers are awesome. I don't get questioned about my decisions in an accusatory tone, more from a learning attitude. We are small with a dozen teachers. I have respected them since before I worked here, so I guess it was just reciprocated. I would address it from the standpoint that nurses are in the school to facilitate a safe and healthy environment and that education does not have that skill set. We exist to alleviate that extra stressor from your life. People respond much better when you focus on them, even while you are pointing out their lack of knowledge in something.

I use a lot of " I understand your frustration. However, based on the policies of our district and the state health department, we do not exclude for X condition. The reason being___________________________________."

Do I confront for every little thing. No, I pick my battles!!!

I've had a few that required some ummm....re-teaching. One teacher sent me a group of kids because they were coughing and making it difficult for her to concentrate. All of the kids felt fine, 2 of them were super annoyed to have been sent to me at all. I sent them all back with a note each saying no fever, no other symptoms, tis the season for nagging coughs and gave them a few mints. She sent me WebMD symptom checker articles on whopping cough:rolleyes:. I replied, thank you for the google search info, but I prefer peer reviewed and evidence based medical journal articles. 3 weeks later one of that group had pneumonia and she emailed the parents telling them that the school nurse ignored the symptoms and was the reason for the pneumonia. I passed that one onto my supervisor and let her handle it.

I've also reminded teachers that they do not have a right to know everything about every child. I've reminded the that lice are a fact of life and that lice don't jump more times that I care to remember.

As long as they are doing what they believe to be in the child's best interest, I really do give them a lot of leeway. They've earned it. I know I couldn't handle a class full of complaining children without send out a few just to get a break!

I had one teacher, several years ago, that would send a student to see me and then immediately call home if I sent them back to class. It happened several times so I did confront her, asking her why she felt it necessary to send them to the clinic if she was just going to undermine me each time. I actually told her if it continued, I would send her students promptly back to her, where she could carry out the nursing assessment and make an informed judgment call on what needed to happen next, and that she could deal with the parents if something went wrong. She stopped calling after that :)

" 3 weeks later one of that group had pneumonia and she emailed the parents telling them that the school nurse ignored the symptoms and was the reason for the pneumonia. I passed that one onto my supervisor and let her handle it."

I would have went ballistic!!! Because you have a crystal ball to predict which cough will turn into pneumonia weeks down the line.

" 3 weeks later one of that group had pneumonia and she emailed the parents telling them that the school nurse ignored the symptoms and was the reason for the pneumonia. I passed that one onto my supervisor and let her handle it."

I would have went ballistic!!! Because you have a crystal ball to predict which cough will turn into pneumonia weeks down the line.

I could not even begin to deal with that one, that's why I made my supervisor handle it! Same teacher once told me that she couldn't share an email containing very important medical info on a student because "Health care information is confidential and protected by HIPPA" I educated her on FERPA. We are not friends:no:

When I worked with a younger grade level, I had passes that I made check boxes on for:

__ no breakfast

__ no fever

__ rested

__ called home

Passive way to show the teachers that I assessed the kid and found no reason for them to be out of class.

The lower grades I will often go by what the teacher writes on the note or has told me over the phone. Yes it's my job to keep kids in school that should be there and yes I'm the one with nursing skills but I barely know these kids in comparison to their teachers. If they feel the student "isn't acting like themselves" and they aren't bouncing around the office for the 10 minutes that they are here resting I'll call home and let the parent decide. And I usually say "Mr/s So and so says your child isn't acting like their usual selves in class today but they have no fever or other symptoms..." I'm not at elementary everyday so these kids can be weary of me and don't always give me a full story. If the kid has no symptoms, is bouncing around the office when they should be resting I will write a note "Talking/playing/laughing with other students while in health office" in cursive (because little ones can't read cursive) and send them back to their teacher without contacting a parent. I've had teachers call parents anyway to pick up the student. I don't argue, maybe if it got out of hand but it's not worth my time. My charting reflects my assessment.

Now, middle school is different. These kids are more than happy to tell me what's going on. I've seen students, sent them back to class only to have them immediately sent back. I'll write a note to the teacher that "X is not an emergency medical condition, student may stay in class" or something of that nature. I've only had push back once when an English teacher was convinced that a students stomach pain/nausea warranted immediate pick up by parents to and taken to the doctor. The student had heartburn from flaming hot Cheetos and the copious amount of hot sauce they were putting on their food. The teacher threatened to call the parent herself but I had the student come back to me, called the parent, explained my assessment and (lo and behold) the parent agreed and had been telling the student for weeks to stop eating so much spicy food since it was giving them an upset stomach.