replacing a pulled tube at school

• By Novagrad
• Posted June 19, 2009 at 7:25 pm
• Report post

That's so foolish. Especially if your doctor wrote a note or a prescription to insert the foley if the tube came out.

Mimi

• Reply

• By MM100MOM
• Posted June 19, 2009 at 9:20 pm
• Report post

Wouldn't that be similar to refusing to "stop the bleeding" on an injury???? I think it's so odd since it's very much like a number of other things a nurse would do without thinking.

So if you can't be reached you child might need surgery to replace the tube? Maybe you can get your peds to try and deal with it.

Linda

• Reply

• By UmmAbdulla
• Posted June 20, 2009 at 7:49 am
• Report post

This is crazy and the first time I heard this on another message board I assumed it could not be true--why have a nurse if you tie their hands in doing the job of a nurse? I have heard many parents in many states talk about this and it seems in most cases I have heard about it is a state law. The only person I think I heard who had a nurse replace a tube worked with a nurse who just ignored the rules and popped a new tube in. One women in Oregon was called to school and the school told her she had to take her daughter off school property to put the new tube in. I think she drove outside the parking lot and put the new tube in and then drove her daugther back to school!! Crazy. My son just stated 2 days a week in a college campus based early learning center. They have one other child with a g tube and are wonderful but they are clear that all they can do is tape a tube that looks loose and call me or if it were to come out call me or the emt if I was not avaiable. The other mother of a g tube child had this happen and all they could do was keep holding guaze on it until she got there. Sorry I have nothing positive to report. I would find out where the rule came from. If it is a state regulation I fear you will have no luck. If it is a policy only from the particular school you might have luck with a doctor outlining how important it is to keep a stoma from closing and the implications if it were to close, etc. Good luck and let us all know if you do figure something out. There are lots of people with the same concern. For now I check my son's balloon each morning and have given the school lots of guaze and tape--of course I always say a little prayer each day as well!

• Reply

• By MOMTO2DS
• Posted June 20, 2009 at 6:37 pm
• Report post

Thanks all for your replies to date....I welcome more thoughts on this.

It is not against state regulation (in our state) for an RN to do this....it is within her scope of practice and the RNs at my son's elementary school, preschool, and respite program are allowed to do so. It is a school policy written by the medical director at the school my son will be attending this summer. The policy states that their nurses are only allowed to perform "emergency" procedures and the medical director has ruled that a pulled tube is not an emergency.

I am attempting to get a letter from my son's GI to help us convince the medical director and as my son is in special education I am doing a bit of research on federal laws that require nursing services be provided to assure his ability to participate in his educational program.

Again, I welcome additional comments and thoughts. Thanks.

• Reply

Add to the discussion