Teacher not letting kid go to the nurse
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
What would the other students do who go to the nurse for treatment and the nurse is out of the clinic helping someone else? What if she helped a kid with a sprain and a kid with a broken bone came in? I'll add that my son broke his arm during gym and he went to the clinic not the other way around. |
Anonymous
Our nurse carries a cell phone so if they were out and another emergency happened they'd get a call. I am not saying that kids don't usually travel to the nurse, but the idea that a school nurse wouldn't go to a child in an emergency (seizure, asthma attack, leg/foot injury bad enough that they can't walk) and would just let the kid wait for an ambulance is terrifying. |
Anonymous
+1000 |
Anonymous
I'd be pretty mad if my kid had a broken bone and was waiting for a nurse to return from visiting a kid with a sprain. Having the nurse be mobile in a school is inefficient. You could have a melodramatic kid with a noninjury take precedence over a kid with a real injury. Carrying a cell phone fixes nothing. It would take time for her to return and she couldn't return if kid 1 was really hurt and she was with her at the playground yet kids 2, 3, 4, etc could be sitting in the clinic waiting and be equally hurt. |
Anonymous
| Why would you wait for a school nurse to get to a kid having a seizure? Call 911!!! |
Anonymous
| Get the whole story first. I'm a teacher and I have a student who "gets hurt" at recess 3-4 days a week. I also have students who ask to go to the nurse every single day once they need to do class work (never any other time). It is similar to the bathroom thread and if I let every student go to the bathroom every time they asked, my class would be pretty empty. I also know some substitutes are pretty strict about these issues. |
Anonymous
Yes, please do. I know some folks here are ready with torches and pitchforks, but slow down and get the whole story. None of us know how the kid presented to the teacher--was he limping? Crying? Or was he playing/acting normally and then the pain set in a few hours later? |
Anonymous
| How old is your child? My 9 year old knows that going to the nurse for any other reason than being in extreme pain, will get him in trouble by me. However, if he is in pain, and the teacher says he can not go (he has witnessed the teachers saying no to the other kids), then he has my approval to get up and go |
Anonymous
|
Escalate. There are times to let your kid handle it, but not this time. Be nice, though, and find out the rest of the facts.
I'm sorry. |
Anonymous
So should OP "escalate" before or after finding out the rest of the facts? 
|
Anonymous
| Get the whole story. Ask the teacher what situation was presented to her and what the policy is. You can find out details without being accusatory. You certainly may have grounds for a complaint or you could have a Boy Who Cried Wolf kid who wasn't believed when it mattered because of a history of complaining. Even as a parent I've dismissed my kids aches/pains/injuries only to later find out they were more serious. Kids are not the best explainers in the moment! |
Anonymous
| Teacher here. There are "frequent flyer" kids who go to the nurse at least 3-4 times a week and often more than that. As another teacher said these kids are not going to the nurse during recess or lunch -- usually, they request to visit the nurse just as a lesson starts or as independent work starts. I almost always let them go. They miss a lot of class this way, but I'm not a trained medical professional. You might want to ask your child how often he/she goes to the nurse and why. |
Anonymous
First of all, most kids with seizures have a seizure plan at school that specifies when various interventions, including calling 911, will be used. 911 isn't always the right response. Often times the plan says "seizures end within 2 minutes, so keep child safe by doing X, document by doing Y, and call mom to pick up." or "Time seizure, and call 911 after 3 minutes . . . " or "Use Diastat which can be found in the nurse's office". But even when you call 911, you still need the nurse. The nurse is the one who provides 911 with the paperwork with parent contact, permission to treat, information about medication allergies etc . . . The nurse is also the person most highly trained in CPR and emergency care, and should be present until 911 arrives in case something happens. There are cases where a teacher would call 911 and the nurse simultaneously (epi pen use, severe asthma attack, certain kids with seizures although not the majority, certain kinds of injuries), in those cases, usually the teacher calls 911 and sends a "runner" kid to the next nearest adult with a phone so they can get the nurse and notify the front office. There are also cases (e.g. what appears to be a broken bone, moderate asthma attack, child is bleeding heavily but is conscious and not shocky) where you call the nurse and let them come and make that decision. I can't think of a situation where one would call 911, for a health related situation, and not also notify the nurse. Of course, the majority of situations, the kid goes to the nurse, but the idea that you call 911 whenever a kid can't be transported to the nurse (e.g. leg injury that could be a break or a sprain, diabetic kid who is too out of it to follow directions to move to the nurse, kid with an asthma attack) because the nurse would never leave their office is absurd. Nurses can and do leave their office. They also can and do leave their office for things like IEP/504 plans for kids with medical issues, lunch breaks, meeting with teachers to review action plans, setting up g-tube feeds for kids in the cafeteria, etc . . . In all those situations there is a plan such as a cell phone/walkie talkie/ or loud speaker announcement to reach the nurse quickly in an emergency. -- 25 year veteran teacher, also mother of a medically fragile child, who is really confused how PP could act as a "substitute nurse", and suspects that PP is confusing nurses and health techs. |
Anonymous
| Does your school have a nurse? Ours does not, so there is usually nothing a teacher can do but send to office manager and usually that means waiting to see if it gets better first. So, did your child indicate to the teacher it was still bothering him or her or just told her once and that was it? |
Anonymous
|
Perhaps it went something like this:
D.C.: I hurt my ankle at recess. Teacher: Do you want to put your leg up on a chair and rest, or walk down to the nurse? D.C.: I don't want to walk to the nurse because it hurts. Teacher: How about you try resting for a little while and then let me know if you want to walk down later. |