What do you guys do for...........

[SchoolNurseBSN]

Cold sores, chapped lips, etc. It seems like I spend so much time seeing these kids. All I really have to offer them is vaseline. I hate to not help any student that needs it. However, do they really need to be missing 10-15 minutes of class for these things? Our classes are only 45 minutes in length and sometimes I see these kids 3-4 class periods 2-3 days in a row. That's an entire hour of missed class time in a week.

Same thing with paper cuts and band-aids, minor bumps that are more than 24 hours old, etc.

I try to teach my students (middle school) how to be proactive in their own care and not run to the nurse for every tiny thing. However, then I feel like I am perceived as not wanting to do my job, etc....

I feel that my jonb is to remove barriers to learning and not create them.....

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I hear you! I have started only giving vaseline for severely cracked/bleeding lips, not the mildly dry or chapped ones. I hate doing it too, but if I let one kid have some, seems like every girl in that class wants some to get that lip gloss look, so I had to crack down on it! For the ones that really do need it, I tell them they have to come before school starts and again at lunch, not during class time. It seems to cut down on unnecessary usage.

[Artistyc1]

I am school nurse in an elementary school, and do insist that the kids come for minor things ON THEIR OWN TIME. After getting off the bus, on the way to PE, before or during recess or lunch. If they are sent during class, who knows how many times that they have pestered the teacher, disrupting the class, before they finally get sent down? That goes for returning icepacks, too. They can wait till breaks to return them. I simply explain to them, that my job IS to keep them in class, unless it is unsafe for me to do so. Many seem to get it, but many never will...sigh.....Sometimes it is harder to get the staff to comply with these wishes than the kids- many will always take the path of least resistance.

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

I'm with you sister ! I usually give vaseline for chapped lips also. My biggest pet peeve is Ice packs. Every student wants an ice pack for the most minor things. Recently, I've been cracking down on who I'm going to give ice packs to.

[SchoolNurseBSN]

Thanks all. I really like the idea of them coming on their own time. This way - I am taking care of their needs but they are not missing instruction time!

[Artistyc1]

Thanks all. I really like the idea of them coming on their own time. This way - I am taking care of their needs but they are not missing instruction time!

I have found myself often reciting the mantra "My job is to keep the child in school, to learn, providing that it is not unsafe for him/her to be here". Sometimes, this is hard to get across to the teachers and paras that want every child sent home for cough or sniffles. I can't tell you how sick I am of hearing "but he looks sick!", even when the kid hasn't complained!! It makes me crazy.

[cowgirlBSN]

I also do vasaline often. I also tell them to hydrate themselves. That is the major culprit for dry cracked lips. I have a really hard time with teachers sending kids during class time. I think some of these guys bug them so severely they finally give in and send them no matter what is going on in class. That makes me wish they would get a little tougher on them. But I've heard so many times that they are afraid not to send them because of parent complaints if they weren't allowed to see the nurse. Its frustrating.