I am tired of being the "bad guy" and I just want to keep our kids safe! Are the rest of you getting negative feedback from parents when you have to call to tell them their child needs to quarantine due to being a close contact of a positive student? A lot of the parents are great and understanding, but I have just as many lately that complain about how their child "is hardly ever around that kid" (the one that is positive) or that they have to work and this is hurting their job, and "this is just stupid! My child is fine! You all are over-reacting!"
I have heard every excuse in the book as to why their child shouldn't have to quarantine, and I've been lied to and cursed at over this. I try to patiently explain that we are following Department of Health and CDC guidelines, and I am very sorry, but we have to follow those rules for everyone's safety. I would rather have a bunch of parents mad at me for "overreacting" than to not do enough and someone get critically sick with COVID! I am in a very small town and there is so much drama! My co-workers and I do our best in identifying close contacts. We interview teachers, students to the best of our ability (keeping the name of the positive COVID person out of it) and even watch the security camera videos to see what happened in certain situations in order to identify those close contacts.
I've had parents try to talk us into letting their child return from quarantine early with a negative test, though we've been told by the health department that a negative test doesn't get a close contact out of quarantine! 10 days is our district's minimum quarantine for close contacts. I DO feel for the parents and I DO know it's taking a toll on everyone! I am sympathetic and I DO care, some days just take the wind out of my sails. I'm trying not to take it personally. I'm not the only one getting backlash - all of administration is! Here's hoping we can put this COVID mess behind us as soon as possible!
Thank you for letting me vent!! I knew you all could probably understand my frustration!!
100% feel ya. So far this week I have taken 3 chewing's. 2 from the same mom who when I called the first time yelled at me and then she called back to apologize for being mean and then proceeded to yell again!! ??
Specializes in Med/Surg, Emergency Room, School Nurse.
I have been doing the contact tracing and contacting the exposures since the beginning of the school year. Luckily we are a small school.
Our health department has been overwhelmed, it finally got to the point where they told me just tell them that they will get a call eventually from us. At that point they were not contacting positive cases when they came in due to the amount. They were 3 weeks behind.
We have a great Health Dept in our county. I have prek-8th grade , over 1100 students. We do all of our own contact tracing here at school. How would the health dept even know the seating charts on the bus, lunch table or the classroom?? That would be next to impossible for a Health dept with 1 nurse to do!
We have a great Health Dept in our county. I have prek-8th grade , over 1100 students. We do all of our own contact tracing here at school. How would the health dept even know the seating charts on the bus, lunch table or the classroom?? That would be next to impossible for a Health dept with 1 nurse to do!
We do all of our contact tracing too. In the beginning of the school year the health dept would call the confirmed case parent and collect any other information needed. It's gotten to the point that the positive case never hears from the dept of health. We've also had some local organizations and day cares "do their own contact tracing" and they just shut down and tell everyone to quarantine for 2 weeks even if the positive case wasn't in the building the same day as some of the other children. At one point we had 20 kids out quarantining because a local dance studio had one case. In reality only the other children in that specific class and maybe the instructor should have been quarantined.
I am soooo glad to hear that it is just not me who feels like we went from being such a respected profession to "meanies" and all we are doing in passing on the info that is given to us. We are implementing the info which is given to us. My staff literally gets furious at me, when a new policy or procedure comes out.
not fun at all anymore. I also hate that my phone never ever stops ringing. Like Im supposed to be on call for all questions , all weekend.. come on
1. I start off by reminding parents this is the mandate from the state and CDC.
2. I try to impress upon them that the risk may be low but the consequences are very high. Do they make their child wear a seatbelt, even though they think they are a good driver...... yes, because consequences are high. By the time you realize you need the seatbelt or quarantine, you cannot go back and change it.
3. Do they complain when I send the notice home about pediculosis or cimicosis? The inconvenience of prevention is much less than the inconvenience of effective treatment.
In my area it has been "anything for sports, (read hockey)"
OMG, the hockey families are the absolute worst here, too. When the state went back to more restrictive measures in Nov, all sports were supposed to stop. They continued traveling out of state, and of course the overwhelming majority of our positive and close contacts are hockey players. Ugh!
For the most part my parents have been incredibly kind, understanding and grateful. They sometimes express frustration but it is clear that they are just venting and it's not directed at me. There have been a few jerks but only a few. I feel like the parents have been more grateful this year than ever before (or perhaps they have just been more expressive about it) and for all of the crap this year this part has been really nice.
If something doesn’t give, I don’t know if I can come back in the fall.
I am seriously considering my other options. I am dead tired and have nothing left for my family at night or on the weekends. My pay is terrible and I am really thinking there must be something I can do to make similar money while working less. I hear vaccine clinics are paying well...
T-ROD, LPN
101 Posts
100% feel ya. So far this week I have taken 3 chewing's. 2 from the same mom who when I called the first time yelled at me and then she called back to apologize for being mean and then proceeded to yell again!! ??