The School Nurse, the GP, and the Scary Letter.

Jagraf

FBaby wrote: »

Before you go and make a big deal out of nothing, maybe you should care to understand the system better. For one, school nurses are rarely run by the schools, they are usually run by the local NHS community or hospital trust, so in this is the case in your area too, the school would have had nothing to do with it.

Secondly, they have to notify your child GP if they haven't been able to perform these checks so that the GP can decide whether he has reasons for concerns or not.

You say it was nothing. Well both my children had eye problems that resulted in surgery for one of them as a result of a condition discovered during that check. No one else had picked up on it. If it hadn't been for surgery, they probably would have ended up with a disability.

So instead of huffing and puffing, maybe you should be grateful that not only the school nurse cares about your child's health, but their GP too and maybe you should be thankful that they pick up where you've failed as a parent (ie. to make sure that you returned the form).

But .... All that fantastic effort by the authorities to look after our children at what is a huge cost, yet they can't organise a proper postal system. I'm glad these checks are done at school and I'm happy to pay for them as a taxpayer, but it seems there is a glitch in the system regarding communication. To get doctors involved (albeit at a distance) is a very poor use of resources.

onomatopoeia99

FBaby wrote: »

So instead of huffing and puffing, maybe you should be grateful that not only the school nurse cares about your child's health, but their GP too and maybe you should be thankful that they pick up where you've failed as a parent (ie. to make sure that you returned the form).

The failure was the school's by relying on a child to deliver a letter. They really ought to know better than to use such an unreliable method of communication for anything important

jaylee3

Pleaseadvise wrote: »

Here is the letter that came through my letterbox on Saturday -

Dear Parent/Guardian of [my youngest child]

[Child's doctor] would like to speak to you regarding recent correspondence we have received from the School Nurse.

Please contact the surgery to arrange a telephone consultation.

Yours sincerely

[Local doctor's surgery]


That's the entire letter! Not another word!

Of course, this was frightening, since I had no idea what it was about. The GP's surgery was shut, the school was shut, and searching the internet to work out what a school nurse could have discovered that was so terrible they couldn't tell the parents themselves but had to get a doctor to do it didn't get me anywhere. I asked my child if she'd visited the nurse at school - she said not since she bumped her head playing, weeks ago.

lynnemcf wrote: »

Because YOU couldnt be bothered to return an important form, you are blaming the doctor for contacting you. I suggest, you take a little more time to care for your child.

That letter would have irked me too. Especially if it had come on a Saturday (when these kind of things always do!) And you cannot deal with it til Monday!

Re; lynnemcf: ^^^ It is utterly absurd to accuse the OP of not caring for her child properly because she missed a letter from the school. There is always SOMEONE on EVERY thread that responds like this! :mad:

This ambiguous letter was silly: they should have phoned her on a WEEKDAY and asked her to pop in, as they were concerned that the letter had not come back.

I would ask the school to phone you in future. Don't get angry with anyone or blame anyone though OP. Just say that the letter worried you very much, and you would rather not get another one like this!!!

Armchair23

So what we've got going on here is an inability to differentiate between parents who are a bit lazily non-compliant ( or victims of the blazer/satchel disappearances) and those that are willfully putting their kid's at risk.

Tough call, I can see both sides of the debate.

I can see why school nurses/ staff are struggling and I'm sure I would too.
But mostly I imagine parents are doing a reasonable job but the forms
become a tyranny all on their own.

I am SO GLAD mine are grown up, I can only see me being an epic fail in the way parenting is rated and measured these days.

pollys

In our area school nurse phones school to arrange a date to come in and do the health checks.
Letters arrive in school for staff to give to children. Letters are put in book bags.
Forms are completed by parent and returned in brown envelope provided by school nurse (confidentially)
Completed forms are kept in school office for school nurse.
School has no idea who has or hasn't returned their form. The school nurse will follow their own procedures for chasing up parents who fail to return the form.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

j.e.j. wrote: »

If there's a difficult way of doing something, public sector workers will find it.. :cool:

What's the easy way, then? Kidmail only works some of the time, snailmail costs a fortune and parents claim they don't get letters, others don't like sharing such terribly private things such as a contact email...

It should be easy. Type letter, attach to email proforma, hit send. Minimal cost, instant delivery, confirmation of sending.

But it doesn't work for everybody, so you have to use every means possible to try and get messages to parents - when you can have 1500 kids and 3000 separate parents to get messages to, it can get silly how many claim to never get anything, when you've done it three different ways.

Bet if we were awarding a tenner to each parent, every single one would be received, though.

Cuilean

PollyS has pretty much summed it up from a school's point of view.

I'm a teacher in a primary school, and in my LEA, we have very little to do with the school nurses, who work for the NHS and not us. They drove me mad last year, turning up in the middle of lessons and waving paperwork because they need to see Max/Jane/Liz right then.

With pre-arranged visits for things like hearing checks, we get given pre-written letters to give out, sealed in envelopes with the child's name on the front. The school don't write them, and have no idea what they say, but the onus is still on us to give them out, and deal with the inevitable upset parents who have questions about whatever the letter is about. Height and weight checks are the most controversial.

Yes, I agree that sending letters is not the most economical way to do it, but not all parents provide/keep a valid email address or mobile phone number. We get loads of bounce backs on school newsletter emails or attempts to text parents about absence, because their number has changed, they've cancelled their internet account and lost that email address, or they've had the line disconnected for whatever reason.

I'm sorry you're offended by the way it's been handled. In a way, I wish more people took the time to think about it the way you have, because it shows you take action as soon as it's brought to your attention. A lot of parents don't respond to communications at all, and I expect it's these parents who they'll be more concerned about, and not you.

flora48

Teachers are busy enough at the beginning and end of school without having to remember to speak to someone about a school nurse letter. I notice nowadays each child has to point out to the teacher the adult who is collecting them before being released. How on earth can she or he be expected to be a mail person as well?

In my day the kids just went out of the door at the the end of the day.

meer53

Why would you worry so much about a letter from a school nurse ? I know my children, i don't need a school nurse to tell me if there's something wrong. It's really not something to get worked up about is it ?

FBaby

And the fact the parent did not receive or return a letter means they dont care about their childs heaLTH??? Honestly I read so patronising narrow minded views on here and this is amongst them

Mmm, the OP did get me in a bad mood, I apologise but I do get annoyed when people systematically blame others when these people are actually trying to do good by them. So maybe the letter was lost, although this is indeed common so it is normal for teachers to normally give a second form and then for school nurses to make contact. So maybe it is possible that all those steps failed, just as it is also very much possible that OP didn't pick the letter up from the school bag or didn't pay attention to it and threw it away.

We'll never find out, but even if that process failed, I don't think it gives a parent the right to start having a go at people and system who are in place to help making sure their children are healthy. In OP's shoes, I would have been thanking the GP practice for picking up that the screens hadn't taken place and bothering to contact me to make sure alternative arrangements could be made.