What is your school nurse policy on calling parents?
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Anonymous
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Parent of a malingerer here and just wanted to post to confirm that there are kids like mine, who would be in the clinic every day had I not instructed her teacher not to send her every time she complains, that cause nurses to call less often and/or view kids with more skepticism than they otherwise might. It's a balance.
But to answer your question, our nurse calls most every time any of my kids wind up seeing her, even if it's for a minor thing and they can go back to class. |
Anonymous
| We’re at a private school in DC... I’ve been called twice in three years (ages 5-7). Once it was lice. I had to pick her up ASAP. The other time they wanted permission to give her Advil since she had a headache. I also got an odd call from another school staffer about something my older kid reported my younger kid did to her vagina... There have been many minor bumps/bruises or scares that involved the nurses’ office that I find out about later. That’s ok for my family. |
Anonymous
Wow. I'm a school nurse.. we arent perfect and we dont have X-ray machines at school. Maybe that nurse made a bad judgement call but to say we arent helpful? I bet you're a gem of a human. |
Anonymous
This. I’ve gotten so many calls about minor head bumps. They have to do it. You should also get a letter home that day. |
Anonymous
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I loved one of my kids school nurses. She would call any time my kids were in the health room and describe their symptoms. Even if they didn’t have fevers, she would tell me they weren’t feeling well and that it was up to me if I wanted to pick them up. in my case, I knew not feeling well was a precursor to actually being sick. I always picked up.
The nurses would also call as an fyi if the kids had scrapes or bumped their head at any point so that I could be on the lookout for concussions, I guess. |
Anonymous
| There is no set policy. It depends on how upset the kid is, how busy the clinic is, etc. I've had calls when my kid tripped and skinned a knee. I have not received calls for fevers. |
Anonymous
| School nurse here, I feel as if I call parents relatively frequently. I use my judgment but usually if they have come in multiple times that day or are visibly ill. Most of the time I leave it up to the parent to decide what they feel conferrable with. As long as Its not with in exclusion policy (vomiting, fever, diarrhea, pink eye or injury needing medical attention). I would always call if the student complains of anything concerning like chest pain or difficulty breathing. I really don't give my students an option to go home unless they have something that excludes them from school. Usually they get the option to lay down for a few minutes and return to class. I think it truly depends on the campus and the nurse I am at a large elementary campus I currently have 5 medically fragile, over 100 life threatening food allergies and two type 1 diabetics on my campus. I see around 40 kids per day not including medication visits. Sometimes I just like that I know I had the parents stamp of approval and they are aware that their child is feeling unwell, or have something that I feel might warrant a follow up at home. |
Anonymous
NP - You may be both a gem of a human and a gem of a school nurse and if so, I hope the families at your school treasure you. School nurses, as a group, are subject to the same variability as any other large group - a few will be gems, a few will be duds, and most will fall somewhere in the middle. My most memorable experience with the school nurse was when my 2nd grader (with no history of malingering) threw up. The school nurse asked my very literal child if she felt better and since she replied yes (after she threw up she felt better than when she’d been throwing up) the school nurse didn’t call me. My daughter went through the rest of the day feeling nauseous, which certainly wasn’t helped by the chunks of vomit in her hair. Frankly, if I’d been one of the other parents, I’d have been upset that my child was exposed for hours to a sick child coated with vomit. You may not have X-ray machines at school, but that’s hardly required to detect vomit. How bad does your judgement have to be to decide that vomit isn’t a problem? |
Anonymous
| They can't win OP. A lot of parents would be mad if they got called and their kid was not feverish or vomiting. Even with a fever we've had parents not come get their kids for hours. |
Anonymous
Why didn’t you write an email to the teacher and nurse since this was so important? Did you have better things to do? |
Anonymous
Or at least given the teacher a heads up about this potentially critical situation! |
Anonymous
| If your child wakes up with a temp, then you keep them home. Full stop. |
Anonymous
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Nurse calls when they need you to pick them up or a head injury no matter how minor. I have no expectation nor desire to get a call every time they go to the nurse.
The head injury calls can be comical. “Kid was hit in the head by a frisbee. It’s considered a head injury so I have to call” was a call I got a few years ago. Gotta CYA these days. |
Anonymous
We're in APS I got a call almost weekly in kindergarten about my kid inadvertently walking into a wall, another kid or playground equipment. In every instance my kid was fine. |