Test to Stay

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Specializes in School Nurse.

Hey everyone! Very, very long time lurker! First time posting! I have been a school nurse at the same school since 2015. We are currently K-6 but will eventually be K-8.

Wondering if anyone is doing test to stay in lieu of whole class quarantine? What does it look like for your school? What are the logistics? No one is doing it in my state yet and we want to pilot it. Would love any resources that anyone is willing to share and just your opinions in general if your school is doing this. It’s for asymptomatic rapid (antigen) testing for 5 days in a row (not weekends) and letting the kids stay vs quarantining at home.

I would love some insight on this!

Thank you!

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Welcome to AN. I'm sure you recognize that the SNs here are the best-est!

I do recommend that folk change their screen names for anonymity reasons. Better safe than sorry!

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Specializes in school nurse.

Hi.

I'm finishing up (tomorrow) my last day of Test and Stay for my school's third grade. We had a positive pool and identified the positive student the next day with reflex testing.

We use a small separate building, I.e. our library. The kids come in one at a time and wait in the parking lot with their parents. As I call results, they can they go into the main building. We ask the parents to bring the kids in early.

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Specializes in School nursing.

Doing it here.

For us, it is 7 days, not 5 (but not weekends, they quarantine on weekends).

I don't have parking lot/separate area for this - we have a small school building with a small lot for staff cars only and are in very urban area. So I give the student list to the needed homeroom teacher(s), they grab the student when they arrive and send them straight to me. Myself and my LPN test them. If negative, they return to homeroom. If positive, we pull them, of course. In order to test and stay, the student needs to be asymptomatic.

We have run nearly 70 of these tests thus far. One classroom with a positive case yielded 8 unvaccinated close contacts (mainly due to lunch); and the next week another classroom with a positive case created another 11 unvaccinated close contacts.

Thus far, I've seen one positive case from this, but not even directly in my office. One student eligible for test and stay developed symptoms, mom kept them home. However, Mom also sent both of that student's siblings in with minor symptoms, which UGH. One of the siblings popped positive on a BinaxNOW in my office shortly after that... (and thus began my run of 6 positive cases in one grade in 5 days).

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Specializes in School Nurse.
On 10/2/2021 at 10:28 PM, amoLucia said:

Welcome to AN. I'm sure you recognize that the SNs here are the best-est!

I do recommend that folk change their screen names for anonymity reasons. Better safe than sorry!

Thank you!!

2 hours ago, JenTheSchoolRN said:

Doing it here.

For us, it is 7 days, not 5 (but not weekends, they quarantine on weekends).

I don't have parking lot/separate area for this - we have a small school building with a small lot for staff cars only and are in very urban area. So I give the student list to the needed homeroom teacher(s), they grab the student when they arrive and send them straight to me. Myself and my LPN test them. If negative, they return to homeroom. If positive, we pull them, of course. In order to test and stay, the student needs to be asymptomatic.

We have run nearly 70 of these tests thus far. One classroom with a positive case yielded 8 unvaccinated close contacts (mainly due to lunch); and the next week another classroom with a positive case created another 11 unvaccinated close contacts.

Thus far, I've seen one positive case from this, but not even directly in my office. One student eligible for test and stay developed symptoms, mom kept them home. However, Mom also sent both of that student's siblings in with minor symptoms, which UGH. One of the siblings popped positive on a BinaxNOW in my office shortly after that... (and thus began my run of 6 positive cases in one grade in 5 days).

Yes I am not sure what it would look like for our school like where we would do it etc. We are elementary so no one is able to be vaccinated yet. Just trying to figure out logistics of this!

4 hours ago, Jedrnurse said:

Hi.

I'm finishing up (tomorrow) my last day of Test and Stay for my school's third grade. We had a positive pool and identified the positive student the next day with reflex testing.

We use a small separate building, I.e. our library. The kids come in one at a time and wait in the parking lot with their parents. As I call results, they can they go into the main building. We ask the parents to bring the kids in early.

This is good to know. I feel like there are a lot of moving pieces to this and we just want to get it right. I am not even sure where to start.

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

We only do this with staff.   Staff who are close contacts are tested on day 1, 5 and 10.  They are asked to mask for those 10 days.   Students who are close contacts are asked to mask for 10 days and get tested if any symptoms develop.   

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Specializes in School Nurse.

Oh wow! So our policy is if vaccinated no quarantine and we require a test on day 5. For close contacts who are not vax we do a 7 day quarantine with test on day 5. But we are masked up, besides lunch where we use plexiglass, stable pods besides bus (which we have seating charts for).

 

it’s crazy to see how different it is for each state.

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Specializes in School Nurse. Having conversations with littles..

This is very interesting. Missouri is in the process of making this an option. I am so thankful for any information that I can gather. I am already doing the rapid BinaxNOW tests. They have been a fantastic tool to have in my toolbox. Test to Stay sounds like a great option as well. 

 

Thanks everyone

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Specializes in School Nurse.

What is your process with the BINAX? Are you testing symptomatic/asymptomatic? Letting kids stay if they’re negative? Or just pooled testing.

 

thank you!!

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Specializes in School Nursing, Pediatrics.

We are using the test and stay only if it has been a close contact of a SCHOOL exposure, then staff and students identified  as contacts can test and stay for 5 days. 

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Specializes in School nursing.
40 minutes ago, scuba nurse said:

We are using the test and stay only if it has been a close contact of a SCHOOL exposure, then staff and students identified  as contacts can test and stay for 5 days. 

Same, but we test for 7 days (though is really 5 because of weekends). 

Unvaccinated with close contact at home, no test and stay, quarantine applies (till day 8 with negative test on day 5; otherwise 10 days). 

I also use the BinaxNOW test for symptomatic staff and students. I was reluctant at first, but it is actually a pretty great tool to have here.  I also use the BinaxNOW test for reflux testing of any positive pools from our weekly pooled testing (which is for both vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff). 

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Specializes in school nurse.
22 hours ago, JenTheSchoolRN said:

  I also use the BinaxNOW test for reflux testing

Do they then get a TUMS....??

But seriously, the inconsistency on BinaxNow is frustrating. The literature states that antigen test are most accurate when a person is symptomatic. BUT, we can't keep a symptomatic kiddo in school with a negative result as we're told to get a PCR confirmation.

HOWEVER, we're told we can use Binax for reflex testing and/or test to stay for asymptomatic students - on whom an antigen test would supposedly be less accurate- and those results count...

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