Suggestions for dealing with school

[tvguy]

Kids that need Epi-pens should always have one with them.

Yes. And the Medical training I attended also strongly suggest that those kids have a parent or other adult with them at the games.

 

[monsterkitty]

I’m going to say as a parent of a kid with an epi-pen this would make me very nervous. Yes, teachers are trained but….

And my good friend has a kindergartner with diabetes. I can’t imagine her being in a school without a nurse.

So I’m glad my little school district has a nurse in each school (and since COVID an additional one just to manage the district COVID protocols and quarantine questions…)

Most school district did away with a school nurse in every building in the mid-80s in my area. When I was in high school, my best friend's mom was a school nurse and she was always worried about losing her job. We graduated in 1984 and her mom lost her job after our freshman year of college.

Students carry their epi-pen with them here. If there was a nurse in the school and she was with another student, she would not be able to leave that student to go administer the epi-pen. Also, getting to the student takes time and not all student who need an epi-pen have that time. We are trained every year how to administer the epi-pen. The traveling nurse will also visit with us for a refresher anytime we take a student on a field trip who needs an epi-pen or has any other medical condition.

The secretaries are all trained to administer medications to students and are trained on how to track and read the levels for students who have diabetes.

The way our nurses are zoned, they have no more than a 5-10 minute drive between the schools they are assigned.

 

[kymom99]

Not doing it could be fatal for someone.

Yes as an adult in charge, I’m surprised training isn’t required. As a teacher we have to have epi pen training annually

 

[kymom99]

About 10 years ago I had a group of students on an overnight field trip at an environmental camp. The next day after our return, one of my girls came in to school with a cast on her arm. I asked what in the world happened. She said at camp, she slipped walking down a grassy hill and put her hand back to catch herself. She broke her arm. She apparently told one of the camp workers who told her to tell me, but she didn’t. She went the rest of the day, slept all night, spent the whole next day at camp and back to school without saying anything. I’m glad her mom wasn’t mad. I might have been a little upset at the camp personnel because they have a nurse on site. She could have checked the child out, and we could have called her mom to come get her so she didn’t have to be in pain away from home. I have no idea why she didn’t tell me. It’s not like she was afraid of me.

 

[Blondie58]

I need help figuring out the best way to speak to the administration of my kids' school. Today for the second time in the last few weeks my older son was sent to the nurse for a nosebleed. The first one was somewhat of an issue because he ended up with quite a bit of blood on his shirt that they made him change it. Today's wasn't as bad and stopped almost immediately after he got to the nurse. Am I out of line for thinking that they should have contacted us to let us know that happened? Compounding the issue is that about two months ago my younger son broke his arm at school before lunch and they never contacted us about it. We knew nothing until we picked him up from latchkey and he was crying his arm hurt so much. How do I tactfully suggest to the principal and district administration that maybe they should be contacting the parents in these situations? The only time I've heard anything from them was when my older son got so overheated in gym he threw up. And that was only because I had to go pick him up.

I would not speak for other parents. But I would request the building administrator or designee contact you about anything that may be unusual in the course of your child's school day. Have the school denote this information on your child's directory information card or computer page. This card or page should be reviewed any time anything out of the ordinary happens with your child.

 

[msjprincess]

How old is your child? I wouldn't expect a call for a nosebleed unless it was due to an injury and they thought it might be broken. With the broken arm what happened when they went to the nurse? And I'm not sure why you didn't say something back when it happened.

I'm surprised that there are so many schools without nurses. Each of our elementary schools has one FT nurse, the middle school and high school each have 2 FT nurses. I guess that's unusual these days.

 

[Cheburashka]

I would not speak for other parents. But I would request the building administrator or designee contact you about anything that may be unusual in the course of your child's school day. Have the school denote this information on your child's directory information card or computer page. This card or page should be reviewed any time anything out of the ordinary happens with your child.

It's an elementary school nurse's office and they have kids going in and out all day with skinned knees, sore throats, nosebleeds, nausea, lost teeth, etc. It's not unusual for one nurse to be attending 2 or 3 kids at once. The vast majority of school nurse's offices aren't going to do an online look-up for every healthy child who presents to the nurse's office, nor should they be expected to.

The expectation should be for a school to actually have a registered nurse full time (shocking how many don't), and that injuries that could potentially be more serious than they look (head bumps, sprains, etc.) should be reported to parents via a phone call.

The couple of posters on this thread who have suggested, "Contact the school and tell them that they have to do X whenever your child visits the nurse", are suggesting that the OP should act entitled to special treatment. The nurse's office knows which students are medically fragile and need special care. That care shouldn't be diverted to spend extra time on healthy students whose parents' egos just need extra care.

 

[DisneyOma]

My wife tries to avoid confrontation if at all possible. Even when she knows that she shouldn't. Many times I deal with it for her or can convince her she needs to. This one she would not allow me to go in and speak with them.

Latchkey is a generic term for after school childcare. At least it was in the '80s, maybe it's been replaced with something else. The YMCA sends a couple of 19 year old college students to the school to make sure 30 or so elementary school kids don't kill each other. They knew he was hurt, but didn't call because he came to them like that and told them he had been to see the nurse then sent back to class.

I have a history of getting upset and losing all tact and decorum. The words that were used in my exclamations about the school would get me kicked right off the DIS. She's pissed but so afraid of confrontation that she doesn't want a direct answer. She wants to ask some people she knows the next time she sees them in person what they think the policy is.

Your wife probably tries to avoid conflict because of your history of responses to conflict? Also, the term "latchkey" was meant for kids who went home to an empty house and let themselves in with their key to the latch. It was the reason why many schools started after school programs. If your child was in an after school program, then there was no latchkey involved

 

[mrs. magoo]

I find this thread fascinating. My city high school students treat the nurses office as an urgent care. They will tell me that they twisted their ankle the previous night at home and now need to see the nurse. My answer for them all the time is what is the nurse going to do for you besides give you an ice pack. I mean really the nurse can only do so much. I worked a playground camp in the 1990s and the kids were supposed to go home for the lunch hour. We had one group who never went home and one of the girls fell off the monkey bars. I packed her arm in ice and called the mom. The mom did not come get her and only took her to get an xray the next day. My own kid fell at basketball but finished the 2 games and did not complain about his wrist until the next morning. We did not get him an xray until more than 24 hours after his injury because we thought it was a sprain.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

My kids schools contact me for every little issue (once got a call because my daughter scratched open a mosquito bite) I can’t imagine OPs school not alerting her. The broken arm thing sounds like a possible lawsuit.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Your wife probably tries to avoid conflict because of your history of responses to conflict?

I was also confused on latchkey because it wasn't how I knew the term to be.

For the above quote that can certainly be the case and may be here but sometimes it's just how people are. When I met my husband when he was 18 he avoided conflict same as his sister. Nothing to do with me, honestly it would be preferable if it was some to do with me because it means I could adjust my behavior which hopefully would do the same for him. But nope not the case that it's a reactionary response to me.

 

[mjkacmom]

My kids schools contact me for every little issue (once got a call because my daughter scratched open a mosquito bite) I can’t imagine OPs school not alerting her. The broken arm thing sounds like a possible lawsuit.

I would be so annoyed to get calls about little issues, and why is everything a lawsuit? Should parents get cps called if they don’t take their kid to be X-ray’d immediately after they get hurt, even if the kid doesn’t appear to be in bad pain?

 

[Donald13]

A nosebleed is one thing but a broken arm???? No need to tiptoe around that. Threaten them with legal action. How on earth did they not know?

 

[Donald13]

My kids schools contact me for every little issue (once got a call because my daughter scratched open a mosquito bite) I can’t imagine OPs school not alerting her. The broken arm thing sounds like a possible lawsuit.

Same for me. I can’t imagine one of them breaking a bone and not getting a call right away

 

[tzolkin]

I'm surprised that there are so many schools without nurses. Each of our elementary schools has one FT nurse, the middle school and high school each have 2 FT nurses. I guess that's unusual these days.

I think it depends on where you live and school budgets. I don't think it's necessarily a new thing. I never went to a school that had a nurse (back in the 80s). There was a spot in the office with a bathroom and a cot where you could go if you were sick and depending on what your symptoms were they would call your parents or send you back to class. This was usually run by parent volunteers or aides.

When we lived in NY my kids' schools had a nurse on staff. We are in North Carolina now and the school has one nurse for the entire district (county). She rotates around the schools, basically just checking their records and things like that not actually taking care of sick kids.

The broken arm thing sounds like a possible lawsuit.

A nosebleed is one thing but a broken arm???? No need to tiptoe around that. Threaten them with legal action. How on earth did they not know?

I really don't understand the jump to lawsuit. The kid was in class for the remainder of the day and not complaining. Why would you bring a lawsuit against the school when they really had no way of knowing that the kid had a broken arm? Several parents have posted that their own child broke a bone, went about their evening, and didn't realize until the following day that they needed medical attention. Should they all be reported to CPS and have their children taken away for negligence?

I think you're assuming it was a visible/noticeable injury and that they purposely didn't take action even though the child was in distress. But it is possible to have a broken bone and still act completely normal. My husband has broken his hand and then went and played golf. I broke my foot in three places. I knew it was injured, but didn't think it was broken so I didn't go to the doctor.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I think it depends on where you live and school budgets. I don't think it's necessarily a new thing. I never went to a school that had a nurse (back in the 80s). There was a spot in the office with a bathroom and a cot where you could go if you were sick and depending on what your symptoms were they would call your parents or send you back to class. This was usually run by parent volunteers or aides.

When we lived in NY my kids' schools had a nurse on staff. We are in North Carolina now and the school has one nurse for the entire district (county). She rotates around the schools, basically just checking their records and things like that not actually taking care of sick kids.



I really don't understand the jump to lawsuit. The kid was in class for the remainder of the day and not complaining. Why would you bring a lawsuit against the school when they really had no way of knowing that the kid had a broken arm? Several parents have posted that their own child broke a bone, went about their evening, and didn't realize until the following day that they needed medical attention. Should they all be reported to CPS and have their children taken away for negligence?

I think you're assuming it was a visible/noticeable injury and that they purposely didn't take action even though the child was in distress. But it is possible to have a broken bone and still act completely normal. My husband has broken his hand and then went and played golf. I broke my foot in three places. I knew it was injured, but didn't think it was broken so I didn't go to the doctor.

I come from a family of lawyers and judges so that’s just the way I think. I wouldn’t sue but sounds like a plausible suit. I’m also a pediatric Nurse practitioner (similar to an MD in my state) and I find it hard to believe a child with a broken arm wouldn’t be in enough pain and distress to alert an adult and the nurse should’ve done due diligence to assess him and notice something was wrong. Just my opinion

 

[Donald13]

I think it depends on where you live and school budgets. I don't think it's necessarily a new thing. I never went to a school that had a nurse (back in the 80s). There was a spot in the office with a bathroom and a cot where you could go if you were sick and depending on what your symptoms were they would call your parents or send you back to class. This was usually run by parent volunteers or aides.

When we lived in NY my kids' schools had a nurse on staff. We are in North Carolina now and the school has one nurse for the entire district (county). She rotates around the schools, basically just checking their records and things like that not actually taking care of sick kids.



I really don't understand the jump to lawsuit. The kid was in class for the remainder of the day and not complaining. Why would you bring a lawsuit against the school when they really had no way of knowing that the kid had a broken arm? Several parents have posted that their own child broke a bone, went about their evening, and didn't realize until the following day that they needed medical attention. Should they all be reported to CPS and have their children taken away for negligence?

I think you're assuming it was a visible/noticeable injury and that they purposely didn't take action even though the child was in distress. But it is possible to have a broken bone and still act completely normal. My husband has broken his hand and then went and played golf. I broke my foot in three places. I knew it was injured, but didn't think it was broken so I didn't go to the doctor.

Uh good for you. Is there a competition as to who can break the most bones without complaining? Congrats you win. I would find it ridiculous if my child broke a bone and the nurse didn’t call me. She calls me when my child wanted to remove her earrings.

 

[mjkacmom]

A nosebleed is one thing but a broken arm???? No need to tiptoe around that. Threaten them with legal action. How on earth did they not know?

Kids break bones all of the time that at first go unnoticed. They’re bones are softer, breaks are less painful, swelling and bruising takes a bit.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Kids break bones all of the time that at first go unnoticed. They’re bones are softer, breaks are less painful, swelling and bruising takes a bit.

That's true but maybe what would be a good protocol is to do what I mentioned about nose bleeds to a kid not prone to them..just give a heads up. "Hey your son fell and his arm hurts, he came to the nurse's station and then went back to class, just letting you know to watch for it in case something develops like a bruise or swelling or possible break"

Resources and all can be tight and not everything necessarily needs a call. I mean I remember going to the nurse multiple when I had really bad cramps but I don't think they alerted my mom every time well except for when they were so bad I needed to leave for the rest of the day, but some things need to be alerted so the parent can watch out for. If the swelling and/or bruising didn't show up til later it would be good to know that something happened earlier in the day.

 

[Sinder]

Uh good for you. Is there a competition as to who can break the most bones without complaining? Congrats you win. I would find it ridiculous if my child broke a bone and the nurse didn’t call me. She calls me when my child wanted to remove her earrings.

Then you probably would have gotten a call that your child came to the nurse complaining of arm pain, not necessarily a call saying your child had a broken arm.
Are school nurses supposed to assume every single child that comes in with something hurting has a broken bone?
Sometimes its not obvious.