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!!
I'm in an urban district and most of the families have been pretty good about taking precautions (or just staying virtual) since the community has been hit pretty hard. But lately I've had a few families not exactly be honest about large gatherings or when exactly they returned from a high risk state that requires them to quarantine. Some of that dishonesty is covid fatigue, some is fear of losing their jobs if they have to quarantine.
The suburb where I live, however, has been extremely frustrating. Lots of deniers, lots of parents who don't think the rules apply to their kids, and a school system that doesn't want to be the bad guy and make hard decisions. My kids are not back in school full time which I understand. Other parents did not make noise about missing school, but went nuts about sports being cancelled or modified. Don't even get me started on the "house homecoming dances" parents held for multiple kids. Then there are some parents like me who reluctantly let their kids do sports because they are still happening, but they are concerned and emotionally drained having to tell their kids "no" to hanging out when their friends' parents really don't care.
I feel the OP's pain. Hang in there. You are doing the right thing.
Excuse my language (said no cursing angry parent to me) but it's a damn if you do damn if you don't. I would rather they be upset with me for doing all I can than not and someone becomes critically ill or dies due to me not stepping up. It is sad that I have had to fight my administration to quarantine students such as classrooms. Recently I had a classroom of over 20 kids have 5 kids and a staff member test positive. When I found out we had 3 positive at the time I requested to quarantine the classroom due to that being considered by our health department an outbreak. The answer I received was we had to wait on administration to allow us to do so. Well the next day the finally agreed and by the end of the week we had 2 more cases. If we didn't quarantine the class then we would have 2 positive asymptomatic students in school spreading this and continuing this cycle. I loved my job but this year its making it harder for me to enjoy it.
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!! ??
Must be the same mom I have! I just listened to her rant about me ruining her LD's 6th grade experience. I finally said "When this is over we need to meet up for a drink" charming disarming is my motto. She then became my buddy. Just wanted to be heard IMO.
I've said it before, I am so in awe of all your awesome skills, tact, common sense, patience, self-discipline, etc etc etc. And that was before ...
Now with Covid, you folk should be sainted for all that you must deal with.
I really don't think the general public (and other PTB) realize that you are the only reason that C19 has NOT decimated schools (and all the peripheral contacts).
You are under-recognized and underappreciated for all you've been doing.
Specializes in School Nurse. Having conversations with littles..
On 2/25/2021 at 12:32 PM, amoLucia said:
I've said it before, I am so in awe of all your awesome skills, tact, common sense, patience, self-discipline, etc etc etc. And that was before ...
Now with Covid, you folk should be sainted for all that you must deal with.
I really don't think the general public (and other PTB) realize that you are the only reason that C19 has NOT decimated schools (and all the peripheral contacts).
You are under-recognized and underappreciated for all you've been doing.
Thank you for your dedication & commitment.
Wow. Thank you AmoLucia for your kind words of support. The challenges and some of the days/weeks have been endless. But, thank you so much for the boost your words have given us.
I've said it before, I am so in awe of all your awesome skills, tact, common sense, patience, self-discipline, etc etc etc. And that was before ...
Now with Covid, you folk should be sainted for all that you must deal with.
I really don't think the general public (and other PTB) realize that you are the only reason that C19 has NOT decimated schools (and all the peripheral contacts).
You are under-recognized and underappreciated for all you've been doing.
Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.
On 1/28/2021 at 10:02 AM, Cattz said:
Has it generally been the practice that your Health Departments have the school nurses to make the calls to parents to let them know their child is quarantined? I work in 2 counties. One of them- the Health Department has always made the initial calls. The other started off making the calls, and now they have put that on me. Just curious how that part has gone in general for other schools?
I make all the quarantine calls for our school. I HATE making those calls. Now whenever I call parents about other things, they get so worried when they hear my voice. I HATE quarantining my seniors during their final sports season. I HATE quarantining kids on their birthday (yes, that happened). I hate the whole thing but, overall our parents have been understanding.
One good thing that has come from this is that I am really getting to know our families. They are utilizing me more for questions or concerns. I make sure they know I am here for them as a resource every time I call. This isn't something I would get to do if DOH was making those calls.
One good thing that has come from this is that I am really getting to know our families. They are utilizing me more for questions or concerns. I make sure they know I am here for them as a resource every time I call. This isn't something I would get to do if DOH was making those calls.
Specializes in Oncology, Med/Surg, Correctional, and School nursi.
SN's, you have my admiration in the handling of the hard times you have experienced for the past year. I am very fortunate that our students presenting with symptoms on the COVID-19 Testing Criteria are referred to military public health. There is no option on whether or not their child will be picked up from school. PH does the contact tracing and the decision on who has to quarantine.
I wish I could bring all of your stories to our monthly meetings to reinforce with my colleagues that we are very fortunate in the overall support we receive from our medical community.
One of my kinder kiddos called me a "Mask Monster" last week and originally, I laughed. Today, I'm feeling like a "mask monster" because it seems like everyone dreads when I walk in the room. I also feel like the ONLY one on my campus who is actively reminding kids to put their masks on. I have teachers who do not require them in their classroom but make sure to tell the kids to put them on if Nurse Keeper walks in. I'm over the blatant disregard for this policy that is quite literally out of my control. Ugh. My responsibilities feel heavy today.
One of my kinder kiddos called me a "Mask Monster" last week and originally, I laughed. Today, I'm feeling like a "mask monster" because it seems like everyone dreads when I walk in the room. I also feel like the ONLY one on my campus who is actively reminding kids to put their masks on. I have teachers who do not require them in their classroom but make sure to tell the kids to put them on if Nurse Keeper walks in. I'm over the blatant disregard for this policy that is quite literally out of my control. Ugh. My responsibilities feel heavy today.
This is so frustrating. I had a teacher who wasn't wearing a mask. A student snuck a photo and sent to their mom. Mom emailed it to me. I ran up there ENRAGED. Have you discussed with admin?
ChristmasNurse
47 Posts
I'm in an urban district and most of the families have been pretty good about taking precautions (or just staying virtual) since the community has been hit pretty hard. But lately I've had a few families not exactly be honest about large gatherings or when exactly they returned from a high risk state that requires them to quarantine. Some of that dishonesty is covid fatigue, some is fear of losing their jobs if they have to quarantine.
The suburb where I live, however, has been extremely frustrating. Lots of deniers, lots of parents who don't think the rules apply to their kids, and a school system that doesn't want to be the bad guy and make hard decisions. My kids are not back in school full time which I understand. Other parents did not make noise about missing school, but went nuts about sports being cancelled or modified. Don't even get me started on the "house homecoming dances" parents held for multiple kids. Then there are some parents like me who reluctantly let their kids do sports because they are still happening, but they are concerned and emotionally drained having to tell their kids "no" to hanging out when their friends' parents really don't care.
I feel the OP's pain. Hang in there. You are doing the right thing.