What to do with Freq flyers?

[cowgirlBSN]

What do you all do with students who come to the nurse's office ALL the time? Most of the time their reason's are not valid. I get so aggrivated sometimes when teacher's send kids in for no reason. I feel like they are dumping on me because they get sick of hearing the kids complain!

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

due to the small size of my school ( 260 kids pk3 to 8th grade) since my overall volume is moderate to low I try to think about why my FF are there.

they are there because of a problem... it my not really be a problem I can fix, but the child is looking for help. sometimes it's that they need a break from the classroom, sometimes the teacher need a break from the kid and their complaining.

I often tease the 2nd and 3rd grade teachers that they have a compition going for the lamest reasons for kids coming down to my office.

but I can imagine in a nurse has a high caseload of kid who need nursing care that the non issue become a burden.

You are on the money. Kids come to the clinic for many reasons, not all of them health related. When you work in a large 900 student urban/suburban middle school I like did the clinic volume is so high every day that there really is very little time to devote to those 20-25 frequent flyers. I think that was the most frustrating aspect of that job, not being able to give the kind of attention to those matters that I really needed to. A lot of my kids slipped through the cracks because there simply wasn't enough time in the day to pursue them. Now that I'm switching to a 300 student elementary I anticipate having that extra time to evaluate students' health/school/home situations and perhaps get those kids the help they really need.

[schoolnurse09]

This week I called the mom of a 2nd grade FF. She agreed that this was becoming a problem for everyone. Together we made a "plan". We would not let "Susie" lay down and rest, and we would not call mom unless we saw real symptoms. So, unless she had a fever, or vomited-we turn her around and she goes right back to class. Hopefully, this will do the trick.