What would you do?

[happyandyouknowit]

Long time lurker here! I have found this board to be so invaluable and now have a question of my own. I am a fairly new school nurse and very, very good at second guessing myself and thinking things to death!

A student passes out in class. I'm called to assist. By the time I get there, student is conscious and answering questions. Report from teacher is that she was unconscious for less than a minute and she did hit her head when she fell from her desk. I assessed her and all was wnl. I called mom to come pick student up with the directive to take her directly to ER for evaluation.

Should I have called EMS? What do you do when this type of situation occurs? Call EMS no matter what, or allow parent to come for student if they can be there quickly and student is stable? (Obviously if there had been mental status change or some other abnormal finding, I would have called EMS.)

Thanks in advance for your advice!!

[ohiobobcat]

I had the same exact issue last year. Kids passed out, hit his head, was awake and talking with stable vitals when I assessed him. I did not call EMS. The only difference in my case was that I had a hard time reaching my student's parents. I was about 30 seconds away from calling EMS when mom and dad finally called back. They were minutes away so all was good. If the parents hadn't called back or they were more than 5 minutes away I would have called.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

At my school, the teacher might has called EMS before I even got there, some of them scare easily! But honestly, if I arrived and the student was conscious and was stable, I'd call the parents. If parent is able to pick the student in a reasonable amount of time for further eval, that is what happens. If I can't reach the parents and feel the student needs urgent care, then it might be a different story.

[Wave Watcher]

No, I would not call EMS. Same thing happened to me at my school. Kiddo passed out, hit the floor. I go there and she was sitting up and alert/oriented. I called parents and mom came asap to pick her up and be evaluated by physician. She was fine. She was watching a WWII documentary and there was "fake blood" and made her sick. lol Bless her.

There will not be too many situations which would call for EMS. I have been at my school for 4 yrs and only called EMS one time and that was for a staff member and personally, she didn't really need an ambulance but had no other way of getting herself to the hospital.

[lifelearningrn, BSN, RN]

Parents have to pay for ambulance transport, so if everything was WNL and parent able to pick child up and take, that is the way to go.

[happyandyouknowit]

Thank you everyone for your replies! I do feel better about my decision. I think I just need to learn to trust my assessments, instincts and decisions more. I'm sure that will come with time and experience. 😀