My school nurse is an idiot

So, I was in gym today and my heart started racing and it got hard to breath. I thought I was going to pass out so I sat down on the floor in the middle of the gym. My teacher was like what’s wrong and my friend Mary was like something’s wrong with her heart (because she knew about my heart condition) so my gym teacher was like ok can you walk her to the nurse please. So she did and I got there and there was this, excuse me if this sound racist because I don’t mean it to, but there was this African American Jamaican lady. She is the secretary I guess but I didn’t know this because I have never been to the school nurse before. Well I told her what was wrong and I was like can you take my blood pressure please (that’s what my cardiologist told me I need to do every time) and she was like oh no no no child I'm not the nurse I don’t do that stuff so I was like OK well can you get the nurse then?! And she was like she is in lunch you are going to have to wait 10 minutes. I laughed and was like are you serious. So she told me to sit down and I look and the senior boy who helps out in the nurses office was sound asleep on the bed and so she woke him up and she was like you should move but not as a command and so he didn’t so I sat down on a step latter typed thing and Mary was like this is ridiculous. So I am sitting there for 10 minutes with chest pain having trouble breathing and finally the nurse comes back and she asks what’s wrong so I tell her and I'm like you need to take my blood pressure and she looked at me funny and was like well you just need to breath your probably panicking about something I’m going to go wash my hands. I was like no I’m not panicking its my heart can u please take my blood pressure and she’s like just breath in your nose out your mouth. I was like this is ridiculous and sat down. Then the Jamaican secretary was talking to her in the hall way thinking I couldnt hear them and they talked about me and said i was faking it because i was laughing before. I was laughing at her and how rediculous she is, she shouldnt be a nurse! I am not deaf what the heck do they think? I got so mad I just walked out and texted my mom and told her what happened. Then 20 min later the nurse comes to my class room and takes me in the hall way and starts yelling at me. She was like you have 2 minutes to explain yourself why would you walk out of my office like that so then I went and hid from her and called my mom and started crying so my mom called the school and got put through to her voice mail so she hung up and then called right back again and demanded they call her to the phone immediately and so my mom gave her a piece of her mind. She was like how dare you accuse her of faking it...blah blah you don’t make a child with chest pains wait 10 minutes to see the nurse she could have passed out blah blah... she spent months in the hospital last year..blah blah needless to say the nurse came and apologized to me and said she didn’t know about my "condition" but she sounded pretty snotty and fake when she apologized to me and now i never want to go back there again. But my mom told me not to go there anyway and to just call her right away and she would come and take me to the hospital. So my mom picked me up and we went shopping...
sigh what a day

Wow what a day. I'm glad your mom was in your corner and able to help out.

Jbug

So how did the Blood pressure turn out ???

Reckon not to bad >>> At least you got to go walk around and do some shopping .

(no soap box icon but just imagine lots of them lol)
I would be SOOOOOO mad if that ever happened to me or my daughter. Heart conditions are serious, and if recordings aren't taken straight away then the problem can right itself (i.e. blood pressure, heart rate) and then the real cause is not found. Yes, I'm on my soap box coz my daughter has a heart condition and if her heart rate isn't checked when she goes pale and sleepy- we are trying to find out if she is having arythmias ('funny heart rates')- then we have no data for her drs.... And anyway if there had been a big prob with your BP you would've needed medical assistance, not further stress...I'm glad that things got better for you. Take care.

I'm sorry this happened to you... you must have been scared. I'm glad everything turned out ok. At least now your school nurse knows you have a heart condition and maybe she'll know what to do if it happens again.

I guess I'm trying to understand exactly why the nurse is an idiot.

She was at lunch. Doesn't she deserve to eat her lunch, too? That being said, she should have come back since it was an emergency situation. As for washing her hands, that's standard medical procedure. Considering she was eating, I would have preferred her to wash her hands or at least put on gloves.

Also, is your heart condition on file with the school? You said it happened last year. Has your emergency medical card been updated? Having Mom tell of a heart problem is fine, but if it's not on file, you're one of hundreds of kids in the school (I'm assuming).

Also, if it's a life threatening condition, your Mom needs to get in there and make sure everyone is aware of it. We had a brittle diabetic one year and the child's Mom made sure we were all aware of the hypoglycemia warning signs and the school gave all of the students' teachers emergency kits.

I'm glad you're ok. Now that you're aware that there seems to be a gap in communication - hopefully you and your mom can do whatever you need to do to help the school make sure this never happens again.

Court_Knee, I hope you realize that maybe your condition isn't at bad as you may feel that it is. Your mom didn't take you to the emergency room, she took you shopping instead. You were fine, right?

Nurses and doctors know the signs of real problems and you obviously didn't show those signs. They can sure be frustrating, though! Here you know you're dying, right?? But you're not.

Try not to panic next time. Especially now that oKie told you what that nurse did is standard medical proceedure.

um actually what i have can, if not monitered lead to heart failure.. i pass out randomly and my heart starts racing. I just moved to this school and the fact that the secretary wouldnt let the nurse know i needed her because she was in lunch is unacceptable no matter how you view it you have to realize that the nurse should have been called. She needed to take my blood pressure i told her she needed to and she thought that because i asked her for that i was faking it, i felt like i was going to pass out i could care less if she washed her hands to take my blood pressure. How many other kids arms go in that????? So no i am not dying but the last time i passed out due to my heart i hit my head and got a subdural hematoma and i was in ICU for 2 months so excuse me for being upset.

Wow so many things that could have happened >>> and have in the past ,,, i.e. bump on head that left you in I C U FOR Two Months ???

If that was me ,,, when I was in nurses office being ill at kid takeing nap on examination bed.>>>> . I,, if given a choice ,, Sit on step stool >>> or Floor ? ,,, I would have chosen the floor . Less Distance to Fall and bump my HEAD . .

Still ,, hope you got a nice outfit out of the Deal When you went shopping .

I would be upset too. My kids had more then a few stupid school nurses. One of which wanted my daughter to "relax and Breathe"when she was having an asthma attack. Okay. same daughter had a brittle diabetic friend who could get nasty is she dropped too low too fast. So at the high school where they were, there were a few episodes of the nurse not handling her hypo state very well and telling her have some OJ or whatever. I just remember that mom had to come in with literature on how to respond to certain issues and when to call for help. It is very important for your mom to schedule to meet with the nurse and the teachers They need to learn what to do and when.

Now, here is the other side. My husband has had 3 open heart surgeries and the were back in the 60's and 70's when our knowledge was still pretty primitive. He went through a Lot of scary things and would often panic when he feld his heart was doing something it shouldn't. So these panic attacks were because he thought his heart was skipping eats etc. He would be convinced that he was dying. So for him it has been a blend. He would ask me if he was okay, if he were dying etc. It's important for you to sort out anxiety from weird heart beats so that you can ask for the help you need. The nurse will be educated, especially by your mom, and you will have the knowledge as a tool that you can use to say, oh, I think my fear is making this bigger then it is or oh, I feel like I am going to pass out, I need to say this to someone and sit down quickly so you are not injured. I hope this makes sense. Please try not to worry about it too much just sit down when you feel that way and ask for help. You should have seen the stitches and bumps my spouse got from falling, fainting or seizuring. He is fine and learned to figure out what is heart vs. what is fear. Take care.

I always loved when an adult figure in school or at a docs office would get snotty with me, I would tell my dad and he would get on the phone and bellow. We would always leave the hard work to him, and he would set the record straight.

OR another time when my heart problems just started before I was diagnosed my heart was in atrial flutter and flying and I felt like I was going to pass out and the hospital is taking their time and I am sitting in the lobby waiting to be called and it angered me that I could have had something life threatening and I was just sitting there waiting...........

sorr yto hear that...

I can't even say how angry that would make me. My daughter has an eye condition and sensitivity to light. She broke her glasses with the transition lenses and while they were being repaired she had to wear her old glasses. She went to the nurses office three days in a row with a head ache. The third day the nurse decided that she was an attention seeker (forget about the fact that this is the end of the school year and she'd not been in there all year!) and refused to give her Tylenol.

She came home that day crying her headache was so bad. I went to the drug store and bought an industrial sized bottle of Tylenol and threw it at the nurse. She attempted to get snotty with me. I told her it was a condition and she was under a doctor's care, that the note from the eye doctor was given to HER by ME when she started wearing her old glasses, I even asked her at the time if I needed to supply them.

Oddly enough 3 weeks later we get a call regarding our youngest son. He got a bloody nose in gym and his twin was sent with him to bring him to the nurses office. When they got to the office, the nurse was on the phone they attemted to tell her what happened and without even looking at him she said "wait your turn, I'll be with you in a minute." So he stood there, with his hand under his nose to catch the blood. She felt that he needed to see a doctor because his response was inappropriate.

Hmm, I wonder if it's the same nurse, this one left our school district, thank God, 3 years ago. Certainly there can't be two of them out there that are this stupid.

make sure you tell them your heart is racing, you cannot control it, and it hurts and you are light=headed and going to pass out......that should get you seen right away.

I have a similar issue and do not wait in waiting rooms.
You have to tell them you are in danger, and because you are young, not to underestimate the heart condition you have.

Be forthright and bold.

i did, thats exactly what i told them but i still waited about 10 mins. If I had gone to botsford (my fav hospital) they would have had me in there asap.

<font color="purple"> Our school nurse is an idiot too. She's always chatting, and walking abround and stuff. When I was a freshman and had to get band-aids, had to sit thee and wait for like...20 minutes because she was talking to other people. Another time, in art class this kid fell backwards off his seat (because they are like little wooden benches instead of seats) and passed out (because he hit the back of his head pretty hard) we waited so long for the nurse to come, he actualy came to, got up, and started walking around, and then at the end of the period when he left the classroom (because he though he was OK) he passed out again. I only saw her at the end of the period. I mean, c'mon lady! This was an EMERGENCEY and we had to wait like...20 minutes for you to arrive? </font>

yeah that i really lame.
my nurse came and found me the other day and she was like
os miss courtney i take it your heart is okay today? in the most snotty way i wanted to slap her!

my mom is really upset with her because in my old school when i had a problem they new to call my mom asap to see if i needed 911. This lady has me sit on a step stool well she eats lunch for 10 minutes. And i am just at this point to annoyed to ever go back there. i feel like they will always jsut assume im faking!

Whatever happens, if you get symptoms in the future DON'T feel that you can't go to the nurse. Hopefully she is just suffering from wounded pride because you were in the right and she was 'told off' my your mother, and that in the future she will not be so lax and will take you seriously as soon as you near her door... Good luck, and take care of yourself.

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BalishBun said:
i did, thats exactly what i told them but i still waited about 10 mins. If I had gone to botsford (my fav hospital) they would have had me in there asap.

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A good solution to this problem is to simply call an ambulance to come and get you in the first place. For people that come in with heart symptoms in an ambulance you get seen almost immediately where I am from, compared to sometimes having to wait when you walk in.

But then, I am in canada, so it may be different up here.

well i just thought i should let you all know my nurse is still an idiot, just a slighly nicer idiot to me.

i have to take my medicine every 2 hours and i have to have a snack when i take it or i throw up so i have to sit in there for a bit and she talks to me and is pretty nice.

but shes an idiot because i mean come on she knows why i come down there the docotors note says to take my two meds every 2 hours and yet when i walk in she says "hello what can i help you with" and when i tell her i need me meds she goes "already? are you sure" come on! lol