The last day of school before the march break Cara had a new nurse for her two checks during the morning. Cara requires two checks, one BG check before her snack and another before she gets on the bus to come home.
I never really thought about it but that make 4 blood sugar checks in 5 hours and that is only the beginning of the day, breakfast, morning snack, before bus ride home and lunch every day of the week when she is at school, WOW.....poor little finger tips!
Any ways back to my story,
I received a phone call the night before the last day of school informing me of this switch, "OK no big deal, it was only for one day" I thought to myself. The day came and went with no phone calls from the school, no kids calling saying their sick and need to be picked up and no "emergencies" so in my books that's a great day!
However during dinner Kailyn (my 12 year old) informed me about the troubles with the "new"nurse that morning.
1st issue the nurse could not figure out how Cara's lancet worked, she was unable to pick her finger.....it really is not that hard!! Cara could have shown her but she is very shy and there is no way that she would tell anyone she just met how to do things.
2nd issue they had to call my 12 year old out of her class to help this new nurse figure out how the lancet works. Kailyn walked the nurse through the very complicated (I type very sarcastically) how to's of using the lancet, walked back to class, sat in her desk and was called back down again to help the nurse still unsure of how to work this very complicated tool. Kailyn showed the nurse again and this time she also used the meter and took Cara's BG, she most likely figured if the lady could not figure out how to use the lancet there was NO way that the nurse would be able to read the meter and follow the directions that it clearly gives.
3rd issue bus blood sugar check comes and yes..... you guess it..... she can't figure out why the meter is not giving her Cara's blood sugar number just an error number. She made her way through 4 strips....one dollar for each wasted strip (that is how much that costs us) and decided that it was time to call the big sister down for help. Kailyn once again showed the nurse that all you need to do is let the meter registrar the strip, either you can press ok when it gives you the strip number or you can just wait 2 seconds and it is ready for you to put the blood on the strip. For this step it gives you a little picture of the strip and an arrow pointing down showing you to put the blood on the strip, but she could not figure this out. So Kailyn once again took Cara's BG (blood sugar).
4th issue and really the reason I need to make the phone call that I keep on forgetting to make is, why in GOOD HELL would B.S. health (the agency that sent the nurse) send a nurse that has obviously no experience working with type 1 diabetics to a 4 year old little type 1 diabetic that depends on the adults around her to keep her healthy and safe?
And this is why we need a change in our school system here!! Yes some of us are lucky enough to have nurses come into the school for our children, there are people here that do not even get a nurse. But some of these nurses are not even trained for type 1 diabetics which I think leaves our children in even more risk because it gives all staff at the school and the parents a false senses of security that your child is safe in the school when truly they are not. Some T1's don't have big sisters at the same school to save the day!! :)
Side note: The ministry of education did get back to me in a 2 page letter, I tried to copy and past the letter but it would not let me she wrote me back in a PDF (I think that is what it is called) format and I need to find a way to crack it and then I will be posting :)
7 comments:
Nicole, I can totally relate. I am actually writing a post on my blog right now about a very similar situation at Ally's school on Friday. Should be updated this evening...
1stboxofchocolates.blogspot.com
I am so thankful for the nursing staff that I have at our school, but like you, I am not comfortable with the "sub" situation...and even worse, the "no sub" situation!
I need to make that same phone call!
That's nuts! I don't understand why the nurse didn't call you either! Thank goodness for Kailyn!
I am trying to figure the whole going to school thing out for my daughter too! Good luck!
WHAT????? If parents can figure out how to operate a lancing device and meter under the immense stress of learning that their child has a chronic life threatening disease...I don't understand the problem. OMGsh!!!!!! COME ON LADY!!!!!
Thank goodness for big sisters. She was probably wondering why they just didn't send Cara to her classroom since the health office wasn't much help.
Hi Nicole,
I too don't get why the nurse didn't just call you?! CRAZY.
Joe's school did not have a sub-system in place last year AND they refused ANY, I am talking ANY delegation of diabetes care. Nevermind that Joe was 5 years old...and although quite bright and able to check his number and give a bolus, he obviously needed a knowledgeable adult present to guide him and in case he were low.
To make a long story short - I went to the district...the head of student services and explained the situation...I had already sat at the school for like 6 hours in a month due to our school nurse being absent. The district cranked up the sub-nurse pay and now we have an awesome sub-system in place (I happen to be one of the nurses). When another sub nurse comes to the school, I usually go over stuff when I drop off Joe and then they call me with each blood sugar check.
With all this being said, one of the subs...did leave the school without notifying me for an hour...AND there were NO trained adults in the building to help Joe (not to even help check a number, treat a low, etc). I have remedied that as well. I got a doctors order that Joe should have access to his diabetes supplies at all times...and the doctor added that a trained adult should be available to Joe at all times. So, I then trained 4 staff members on checking blood sugars, treating lows, giving glucagon etc. It was a lot of work...but now, looking back, well worth it.
Could they perhaps have a CDE do a workshop for the sub nurses? To help prepare them to care for type 1 kids?
Good luck...great post...this situations are most frustrating when going through them. (((HUGS)))
In our school we don't have a "health office" a nurse from an agency comes into the school only at the time that Cara NEEDS to be check (snacks and bus time) before and after that she is on her own. I had a diabetic teacher come into the school to educate the other staff in case of "unplanned" lows and other problems however only her teacher came to the meeting, no principal, no gym teacher, no one. Her teacher is wonderful and has really spent sometime with me to better understand what Cara is going throw and how to help her if she needs help and of course we have Kailyn at the school...thank goodness!!
I think Kailyn should have gotten the nurses pay for that day :)
Thanks for everyone's comments
We had similar challenges at first, but luckily not as extreme. The thing that frightens me is: if they aren't trained on how to use the tools, how are we supposed to believe that they were trained on how to handle diabetic kids?
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