Accident at school

dizziblonde

jpmummy wrote: »

I was asking whether my opinion was right! I didn't imply that the school was poor.... I asked for opinions and experiences, not sarcasam such as "schools dont have medical profesionals and x-ray equipment!) or its not an ambulance job for a non life threating arm break....

Schools don't have x-ray equipment - it's a fact.
What they did seems perfectly acceptable to me - I've seen things handled both ways, with the kid taken to hospital and parent told to meet them there - parent complained they'd not had the choice of their child going or not, or parent asked to come to school and take child themselves - parent complained child wasn't taken to hospital.

No school is going to administer painkillers off the bat unless they're an on-going treatment with written permission from the parent (some schools won't even do that) - if something goes wrong they'll get jumped on and sued... can't blame them for that.

In the case of injuries (and they happen - a friend of mine broke her leg just tripping over on the playground when we were kids - no one's fault, no one to sue on a no win no fee basis - just one of those things that happens in childhood) pretty much a school can do is sit a child quietly down, icepacks, TLC, dressings and bandages (not elastoplast as some people are allergic to the adhesive in that) and call for parents. There is nothing more the school can do - so going off on them isn't going to accomplish anything - the school is powerless and if they had given a child-appropriate painkiller to the child - they'd be in trouble for doing that.

As for taking the child to the hospital - depending on how the emergency services act you might have got an ambulance out, or they might have been told to get him there on their own steam. As a teacher I don't have insurance on my car policy to transport pupils, most don't and I also don't have a booster seat suitable to transport a child - most schools I've been in have to request children bring booster seats in for themselves if parents are giving lifts to after school matches etc. Sometimes a school will release someone to do that and take the risk - but again, if anything goes wrong (assume someone drives into the back of the car at traffic lights or something - accidents happen), the schools' head will be on the block, and the no win-no fee vultures will be circling. Personally I won't take the risk - because it's my career that I worked for years for, my ability to pay my rent and keep the roof over my head, my livelihood on the line. No doubt I'll be slammed for being callous and uncaring for that - but I long since realised teaching is damned if you don't, damned if you do.

Things like that are why the school called you - because education in 2009 is like being trussed up with legal string and barely being able to breathe for fear of doing the wrong thing. Now seeing how anyone who's countered your anti-school complaints with rational comments has been accused of sarcasm and jumping on you - no doubt you'll be "down that school" demanding the climbing frame (I'm willing to bet it's a "trim trail" that most schools have installed and are incredibly low off the ground) is removed so no one gets hurt again - and the sad thing is, it probably will be, and the kids get even more bubble-wrapped.

bonty44

dizziblonde wrote: »

teaching is damned if you don't, damned if you do.

Too true (sadly)

elisamoose

Ok from the perspective of a school first aider ..........................

If the arm was bleeding / bone protruding etc then 999 and then call parent to meet at hospital, 2 members of staff to accompany the child to hospital and then another one to collect once had handed child over to parent. ( no insurance on staff cars to transport kids to hospital!)

If not sure whether broken ( and it is not easy to tell - colleague who is a nurse left her own child 48 hours with a 'sprained' wrist before going to a and e and it was badly broken!) then I would keep the child still ( not easy ) while waiting for a parent to attend . If the parent had a long journey and could not get anyone to come more quickly then I would ask if he/she wanted us to take the child to hospital. Schools are not able to give painkillers ( and hospital would not want you to before treatment)

Once at hospital , if parent not there and not life threatening then little can be done until parent arrives to give consent.

As school staff we always have the best interests of the child at heart. We don't deliberately upset parents honest !

smileylunar

Tricky one this, as a mother and a nurse, I think I may have, at the time of the phone call, reiterated how far I had to travel in order to reach my childs school,ascertained just how much pain/distress my child was in and enquired if my child was in pain, distressed whether they suspected a broken arm ,asked them to call for a paramedic assessment and for them ( the paramedic)to administer some sort of pain relief (your childs notes at school should have details that you gave them of any known allergies) I would have thanked the staff for contacting me and comforting my child. I would have asked them to inform me if and when the paramedics arrived as to whether I should meet them at the school or The A&E dept.
my rationale being...(before I get shot down in flames as so often is the case on some boards!)
A) you were distressed about your childs injury- how calmly can you drive with a distressed and hurt child in your car?
What if you were stuck in traffic for an extended time, therefore worrying about your child, also the childs teacher/carer would be doing a good job comforting your child and explaining why your child may need to see a paramedic
C) there can be underlying problems with fractures that require stabilising prior to mobilising the patient.
D)every body concerned would be reassured that your child would be getting the appropriate treatment therefore engendering trust in the future for all concerned.
I would be interested in the views of your childs school and hope they would take your concerns and suggestions for future episodes ( which I obviously hope never occur again)
Finally but not leastly I sincerely hope your child recovers well and fully and that you feel in control on monday at school to be able to listen to all sides of their explaination whilst being able to ask pertinent questions about future care expectations. You sound like a very caring mummy and your son is lucky to have you on his side.
none of this is intended to insult teachers/carers.
These are my opinions based on motherhood, child protection and experience.
HTH

KellyWelly

We had a child with a broken arm at a function we held in school in January. St Johns Ambulance were in attendance and were pretty sure it was broken but did not phone an ambulance. The head and I discussed it and agreed if it had been during a normal school day we would have called for an ambulance but as SJA were in charge of first aid at the time we let her mum take her. The one thing about it though was they triaged her before she went to A&E so she went straight onto the ward when she arrived.

Accidents do happen, no matter how vigilant we are.

eco21

Just reading through this post, seems from my point of view that the school down what it could with its tied-hands

School teachers arent allowed to have pupils in their own cars so they couldnt drive to the A&E
School isnt allowed to administer any pain killer to pupils, unless part of an on-going treatment
School will have at least one first aider, who will have skills limited in first aid, so they will not always be able to tell the severity (also enough previous posters stories of walking around on broken legs to know that can happen)
School may or may not had school bus that could have been used for travelling
School may or may not had staff to go with pupil
School must have felt that the time for you to get to school was reasonable, to not need to find an alternative

I think the school done well, and think the fact that have opened a discussion with you is positive, if the school wasnt doing this I maybe more suspicious. Are they hiding something (did the have a school bus and staff to go to A & E etc)

I think your son is hopefully on the mend, and that is the main thing

grey_lady

To the OP, of course the school should have seeked medical advice immediately rather than called you and expected you to deal with it from afar. Broken arms are not always straight forward. I wonder if you also thought this, hence your post?

But..

I dont get this, how on earth can people post that even if a child is bleeding and has bone protruding that they cant drive them to hosptial as they dont have insurance!!!! (i have never been told by insurance company that i cant carry passengers under the age of 16 on a normal licence on a private policy btw) and then claim that they have the child's best interest at heart!!!

If a child in my care needed medical attention and the quickest way
of getting that was to drive them myself to hosptial then thats what i would do - this is political correctness gone mad imho. But of course if moving them (seemed risky to the child) or driving just wasnt an option then of course call an ambulance and let the trained professionals
decide if it was an emergency. But to not to help a child in pain because you're worried about red tape.... (ggrrrr)


And the person who posted, who would look after the rest of the class whilst a teacher took one child to hospital, ROFL, teachers dont spend every school hour in the class room teaching, a lot of their time is taken up with prep and im sure that a teacher could be spared from paperwork for an hour or two, deputy and head teachers commonly dont have any classroom duties so surely could step in....

Kaz2904

SugarSpun wrote: »

2 minutes is all?! I'd have thought most nurses could manage about 5. It's a strenuous job at the best of times, being a nurse, although having machinery is much better. At least the machines wouldn't feel guilty if it went wrong.

We do 30 compressions to 2 breaths then when the team arrives, cycles of 100 compressions. There's no machines to do it for you unfortunately!
The first time I had to do it on a real person, I was 8 months prgnant and got a telling off when the Docs arrived but both of us on duty were pregnant so what to do!

Sorry for going off topic there!

As a Mum if it was my child, if I was at work I'd get hubby to pick her up as he'd get there first and I could meet them in A&E. Otherwise I would go but I would probably get her to hospital quicker than an ambulance anyway.

In my first week of being back at work from maternity leave, I had just sat down for my break and looked out of the window to see my DH carrying my 2 year old DD covered in blood across the car park.
I said to my colleague "!!!!!!, what's happened and where's the baby?" but couldn't go straight down as I had to go and find the other trained nurse to tell her I was going off the ward. I got downstairs to find that she'd fallen down a flight of concrete steps and smashed her face in :eek:. I let DH take her to A&E because when you are there in uniform, people pester you whether you work in the hospital or not and I didn't think that was fair on DD. DH brought her up to my ward when they were finished to show me she was ok and then they went off again.

It's horrible being at work when your child injures themselves because it cements the guilt that us Mums are handed to us when we leave the maternity unit.

jimexbox

grey_lady wrote: »

I dont get this, how on earth can people post that even if a child is bleeding and has bone protruding that they cant drive them to hosptial as they dont have insurance!!!! (i have never been told by insurance company that i cant carry passengers under the age of 16 on a normal licence on a private policy btw) and then claim that they have the child's best interest at heart!!!

Because sadly in today's society some folk are obsessed with obeying the multitude of rules than govern every facet of our lives. Government has us so cornered as to what is acceptable, helping our own shadow carries a risk of arrest and possible water boarding. Instead of 'doing what is right' (not necessarily in this case). Folk are so concerned to follow 'policy' that the objective is forgotten, sometimes the end does justify the means.

chivers1977

[QUOTE=
It's horrible being at work when your child injures themselves because it cements the guilt that us Mums are handed to us when we leave the maternity unit.[/QUOTE]

So true................