What warrants a call home?

Specialties School

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Good morning, all! I'm not completely new to allnurses, but new to this group. I'm a newly licensed LVN working as a nurse in an elementary school.

I've figured out quickly that there is a huge learning curve as far as practicing nursing in a school vs a hospital/clinic. I have children of my own and tend to use a "would this alarm me as a parent?" as my approach to whether or not to call parents.

So on Thursday I had a 3rd grader come to me at the end of the day with a rear ankle scrape. She was NOT bleeding. She had a bandage on in the area already, so I asked her to show me what I was supposed to be looking at, and she pulled down her sock and she pointed to a cut just below the existing bandage. I cleaned it and placed a bandaid over it and sent her back to class to get her backpack since school was out. And just to reiterate, she'd walked downstairs and across the entire school to my office with absolutely no bleeding. So I documented such, waited for my daughter, and left.

The next morning I walk into the front office with the mother standing there, and she proceeds to yell in my face and tell me I'm incompetent, and that she's am MA and even she knew the cut would need stitches (stitches?! What I saw was a typical ankle scrape... It almost looked the way ankles look while breaking in new shoes). And that I was trying to cut corners so I could go home. To which I didn't reply, but was thinking that I never take a lunch breaks and frequently stay late (unpaid) to work while my kids are in after school care. But how would she know that? She just wanted to go with her wild assumptions and berate me. She was shoving a picture in my face to which I couldn't reply honestly as it would have gotten me into trouble. Honestly, I would never have taken my child to the ER for a 1" ankle scrape, but whatever. And as I said before, the girl had managed to walk quite a bit to get to my office without any bleeding, and yet this mother was claiming her daughter had a saturated sock 5 minutes later? The only thing I can think of was that the ridge of her shoe maybe made it worse?It was also the end of the day, and I'd even asked the girl if she went to after school care or was being picked up, and she said her mom was there! I also spoke with her teacher who said that after it happened, she put a bandage on and she continued working on her science project. Her teacher said it had some blood right after, but none post-bandage nor none when the girl returned to get her backpack.

I guess this this is more of a vent than anything, but I was really upset and embarrassed to have someone yelling at me like that in the front office in front of everyone. When I told my district nurse about it, she just rolled her eyes and said that some parents are crazy and just enjoy escalating things, and to not take it personally. Sure hard not to, though!

So originally I thought this in no way warranted a call to parent, but had I been psychic of this girl having a nutty mom, I sure would have called!

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Oof, sorry so long :bag:

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

You saw what you saw....you're never gonna please everyone....just continue to go with your professional and parental intuition.

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Thanks for your reply. That's about what my district nurse said as well. I guess I have to focus on the 99.99% of parents who are kind and grateful for my care.

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Specializes in NICU.
she's am MA and even she knew the cut would need stitches (stitches?!

So, did the child need stitches? Obviously they are not going to stitch a scrape at the ER.

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So, did the child need stitches? Obviously they are not going to stitch a scrape at the ER.

We're not sure... Our district nurse called the girl into my office that day to look at her ankle, but she said "my mom said not to take off the bandaid." The DN tried to persuade her to let her take a peek, but she wouldn't budge.

Either way, what I originally saw as well as the teacher did not look stitches-worthy, which is why something had to have happened afterward had she truly "needed" stitches. And like I told the mother, I have no control over what happens after a child leaves my office. And the mom did say "the bandage didn't even cover the cut." I KNOW it was entirely covered when she left my office.

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But judging from the picture that was shoved in my face, it just looked like a normal, healing scrape. It looked scabbed, and didn't look like any stitched cuts I'd seen during my ER rotation in school.

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Unfortunately , some people will give you a hard time no matter what. Some hate you because you have a good job. Some hate you because you are paid with tax dollars and some are just hateful people. Use your good judgment, call home when you feel it's warranted and remember, by far, most of the parents appreciate what you do. Hang in there!

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Unfortunately , some people will give you a hard time no matter what. Some hate you because you have a good job. Some hate you because you are paid with tax dollars and some are just hateful people. Use your good judgment, call home when you feel it's warranted and remember, by far, most of the parents appreciate what you do. Hang in there!

Thank you for your words of wisdom! :)

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I'm sorry that happened to you. Above all, that woman's behavior was completely inappropriate.

While working for a while in the ER, I found that when you cleanse the wound w/ normal saline (or pour NS on 4x4 and place on wound for short period), it softens or "opens up" the wound and you can see if there's actually more depth to it. Maybe the girl's wound was something deeper that's not really visible off the bat, the girl went home... took a bath or mom re-cleaned it, saw what she saw... thus began the beginnings of an angry tirade of whatever whatever whatever.

Noncontaminated wounds have been successfully closed up to 12 hrs post-injury, so worst case scenario was that the girl needed stitches. Even still, care wasn't likely delayed to the point that it couldn't be repaired.

More than likely, it was just an abrasion and mom needed to vent. You're doing a good job. I'm sure that won't be the last parent to yell. With enough time, you'll be more comfortable telling a parent that shoves a picture in your face what you really think about it. :)

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Specializes in Critical care.

I can almost guarantee that the reason why the daughter was told not to let you look under the bandaid is because she was laughed out of the ER with no stitches and is embarrassed. I can almost imagine the conversation ..

"OMG I need some help in here my daughter need stitches! That idiot school nurse just put a bandaid on it!" Irate mom.

"Let's take a look, oh you got a little booboo under there, let's rinse that off, and put another bandaid on it. Mom please head over to registration for your $500 bill." Patronizing ER doctor.

Hopefully the mother who claims she is an MA is big enough as a person to apologize for overreacting.

Cheers

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Specializes in Pedi.

Mom is crazy. Move on.

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