I need your feedback and suggestions. Thank you in advance for always giving me your input on things that trouble me with my job !
Have you noticed and upsurge in students of elementary ages having incontinence issues ?
I'm talking urine and BM. I have large numbers of kids who range from Kindergarten to Sixth grade who are constantly in my clinic for soiling or wetting their clothes.
These are not occasional accidents either. These kids are coming in once and sometimes twice each day. I have many kids who have 504's specifically stating that they are to come to the private clinic bathroom each day and they are to sit on the toilet for 20-30 minutes so that they will become "potty trained".
These daily kids are tying up my only bathroom and I have no other source of water if I need to wash my hands or deal with a student with a nose bleed, loose tooth..etc.
I have a small storage closet that I keep many bags of clothes for upward of 15-20 students who's parents want me to house spare clothes for their child, in case they have an accident. I am over run with these bags and I am running out of room.
My clinic smells like a johnny house most of the day and students, teachers and parents make comments about the odor when they enter the clinic.
Teachers expect me to thoroughly clean up these kids when they poo themselves, but I do not. Will not. Cannot. I will however, lay out their clothes, wipes, bag for them to change themselves. If they have no supplies or they cannot do this task on their own, I will then call the parent to come clean them or take them home for a bath.
The expectation that teachers and parents have of me is unbelievable. I believe that, even with a witness/staff member being in your presence is not good enough in this day and age. Kids lie about disturbing things all of the time and there is no way that I will risk my license and lively hood on one false accusation of touching inappropriately or harming a child.
To say that this just doesn't happen these days, is to bury your head in the sand ! All it takes is one parent to turn to social media and construct lies about what you did to their little snowflake and your career is over.
Please friends, please tell me how you handle these situations. Tell me how this is solely a nursing problem. Why the school nurse. When did poop in the pants become more important than my diabetic's, my students with asthma, my students with a feeding tube.... ???
We had an 8th grader last year who had encopresis. I work in the high school (9-12), but I cover the for junior high a few times a week when the junior high nurse is at her other school.
One day, the junior high principal and vice principal were in my office telling me this student had an accident and I needed to DO something about it. I told them to find the student a shower and let him clean himself up. They stared at me like I had 2 heads.
JH Admins: "But... but shouldn't he come here to change?"
Me (looking at THEM like they had 2 heads): Why? Find him a shower and let him clean himself up. He can change after his shower.
I think I got a few more visit from the admins that day. They were flabbergasted that I did not jump up and save the day with this kiddo, which is what the junior high nurse used to do for them. They never contacted me again when this student had an accident. They did contact me after a teacher put her hand in some poop the student left behind on a chair. Again, JH admin was FREAKING OUT. It's POOP, for crying out loud. Not ebola!!!!
The student moved out of the district over the summer.
OMG guys. I'm not a school nurse, but am a longtime lurker here because you guys are hilarious. And hearing all the stories in this thread, just...wow. I cannot fathom that there are so many school-aged kids with this problem and that you are expected to deal with it. And that so many parents don't even care about it. Mind blown. I wish I could buy you all a drink!!!
I too am a lurker as I am not a school nurse. I must confess, my jaw has been DROPPED the entire time I have read this thread. Ridiculous. And a 14 year old soiling his pants and neither he or his mom thinking that's a big deal? Am I in a twilight zone? I figured potty accidents are inevitable with the younger children. But older ones? What's the explanation there? Psychological and behavioral? MIND BLOWN.
Someone said something about inconveniencing the parents enough to get them to do something about it. Isn't that sad that it has to come to that in order for some parents to actually do something for their children?
Still dealing with this again this year. Two first graders. They don't seem phased by it all. Does any district have a protocol or procedure in place? We would like the parents to have some "skin in the game" and hopefully things will change. One mom just said she was too busy to come in for a meeting! The other kids are going to stop being so nice pretty soon. This is a big problem.
Still dealing with this again this year. Two first graders. They don't seem phased by it all. Does any district have a protocol or procedure in place? We would like the parents to have some "skin in the game" and hopefully things will change. One mom just said she was too busy to come in for a meeting! The other kids are going to stop being so nice pretty soon. This is a big problem.
Wow, seems to be an issue for me as well and not linked to a medical issue. Let me ask you this, are there any consquences? I do not feel like these are mostly accidents but mostly on purpose or laziness or a power issue. We have taken away recess on some, we have had the social worker do a group session with the same age child to hear from his peers that they do not pee or poop in their pants because they are not a baby, and spoken to parent at home to continue a consquence at home like take away video games. If there are no consquences for an age appropriate toliet trained child, there needs to be one or this will not change for a long long time.
One had a chart with stickers for days there was not an accident but nothing negative last year in K. The other is diagnosed with Hypotonia but I cannot find anything that says that is the actual cause. More like an excuse. Very frustrating for the teachers and the nurses but the parents...no so much.
ohiobobcat
887 Posts
We had an 8th grader last year who had encopresis. I work in the high school (9-12), but I cover the for junior high a few times a week when the junior high nurse is at her other school.
One day, the junior high principal and vice principal were in my office telling me this student had an accident and I needed to DO something about it. I told them to find the student a shower and let him clean himself up. They stared at me like I had 2 heads.
JH Admins: "But... but shouldn't he come here to change?"
Me (looking at THEM like they had 2 heads): Why? Find him a shower and let him clean himself up. He can change after his shower.
I think I got a few more visit from the admins that day. They were flabbergasted that I did not jump up and save the day with this kiddo, which is what the junior high nurse used to do for them. They never contacted me again when this student had an accident. They did contact me after a teacher put her hand in some poop the student left behind on a chair. Again, JH admin was FREAKING OUT. It's POOP, for crying out loud. Not ebola!!!!
The student moved out of the district over the summer.