Keep their contact info up to date? I have had a student in the clinic since 11:30, vomiting and no temp. All numbers for parents are not working, voice mail not set up for grandmother's contact # and auntie's phone" isn't taking calls at this time".
An hour after lying in clinic little guy says I think I feel better, can I try to make it the rest of the day. I'm thinking might as well since we can't get in touch with anyone, I call his teacher explain the situation and she agrees.
Teacher calls back within 15 minutes, little guy just vomited in the classroom trash can, sending him back.
Start interrogating little guy... where do your parents work, do you have any other numbers in your tracker, etc. Doesn't know the name of parent's employment. Mom's a "blood taker" somewhere and doesn't even know if dad has a "real job". In between the other 40 kids coming in and out of the clinic I find out that he is a car rider, but that he goes to Educare after school. I wait for the Educare director to arrive at 2:30 pm to check if she has different contact information. Yep! She has a different number for mom.... a working number that mom answers! Finally mom is on her way to get LD after more that 3 hours of the child being sick at school. There should be some kind of law or something to hold parents responsible for ensuring all people that have contact with their child have up to date info.
AND another thing.....
What is up with the "this # isn't accepting calls at this time"... so when do you accept calls, in the evening when your child is home with you? AND why don't people set up their voice mails? If they do have a VM set up.... try checking it when I leave a message instead of calling the front office saying "someone called from this # and I don't know who it was" there's over 600 extensions that are connected to the main #, check your message and you'll know who called!!
This is the worst! Luckily, most of my kiddos have cell phones and know their parents numbers, or I'm sure it would make me insane. I call every number on their list and if I don't get a hold of anyone, I get admin involved. We have not had to have police drive out yet, thank goodness. Sometimes also, I check with registration who somehow had a different number that wasn't updated in the system.
I have gotten a Google Voice phone number, and I text parents from that number. I find a parent may not be able to answer their phone but can read a text message. The parent receives the text message from the Google number, and it never reveals your personal number. This has been very successful in getting parents to call the clinic.
Same. Our SRO, provided by the local police department, tracks them down. This has happened a couple of times this school year. In one instance, the guardian said "we must have written her number down wrong." Uh, no, I tried calling the number YOU wrote down on the student's health form. Sheesh! ?♀️
I have gotten a Google Voice phone number, and I text parents from that number. I find a parent may not be able to answer their phone but can read a text message. The parent receives the text message from the Google number, and it never reveals your personal number. This has been very successful in getting parents to call the clinic.
sounds interesting. However I often lack cell service...
This is probably the biggest point of frustration of the job. You can bet if I am calling you, it's not to chit chat, it's because your child is sick or injured. (You can bet if i am calling you about nonsense, it's because you requested to be called about nonsense read: call for every visit or because you called and complained over something trivial) I generally go down the list, give a nominal waiting period, call again depending on the outcome of the calls -obviously if the numbers were invalid or not accepting calls, then I may handle it differently than if I can leave messages.
These parents don't seem to comprehend that if there were an emergency and I can't reach them, that it really becomes an issue. I often wonder how these parents manage if they leave their children during off hours. Do they leave babysitters with no contact info or phones that they won't answer or can't leave a voice mail? Do they just leave kids alone to fend for themselves?
My other point of frustration is the parents who are just simply inconvenienced by their sick children. They offer "I'm working" and no pick up, no plan, nothing. That gets turned over to administration right away. The older and saltier I get the more I have learned to appreciate what's above my pay grade.
It drives me crazy! I mean, really, you have a child at school, but you don't bother to update your contact info in case of an emergency??? Is your life THAT busy you cant write a note or call?? But YET you have time to complain to admin when we don't call you! UGH, I hate people! LOL
and then there are those that act like it is our fault or appalled that we don't have updated info if their phone number has changed when they haven't made the effort to tell us the info has changed. ? I ran into this today.
I have gotten a Google Voice phone number, and I text parents from that number. I find a parent may not be able to answer their phone but can read a text message. The parent receives the text message from the Google number, and it never reveals your personal number. This has been very successful in getting parents to call the clinic.
Does a google number work for outgoing calls as well? I'd like to be able to call parents from field trips this way.
I have gotten a Google Voice phone number, and I text parents from that number. I find a parent may not be able to answer their phone but can read a text message. The parent receives the text message from the Google number, and it never reveals your personal number. This has been very successful in getting parents to call the clinic.
can you explain the concept of the google voice number to me like i'm five - i'm intrigued and think i'd like to use it, but i need someone much more tech savvy to explain it to me. Do you use it with a computer? Your own phone? is it an app? Do you pay for it? Can you get calls / texts on it or just send??
haha...I just tried calling out on the Google line, and it won't go through. The texting feature works though. Maybe someone more tech savvy than me can explain it.
I use it with my own phone, it's an app. Google gives you a random phone number, and I use it to text parents. When the parent receives the text, it displays the Google phone number and not your personal cell #.
CampyCamp, RN
259 Posts
And voicemail boxes that are never cleared so you sit and listen to the whole message only to be told "Voicemail is full. Goodbye."