Bullying & Physical Complaints of Students

BULLYING in SHOOLS

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Hopefully Helpful School Nurse Tip:  Do you think some of  your student's complaints can be related to a bullying issue? Sometimes students have psychosomatic issues and they don't realize why. Pay attention- this might be happening to one of your students too.

As a school nurse, you might be one of the first school employees to suspect or learn about an act of bullying.

Bullying which results in physical injuries can be some of the most obvious attacks.  

However, many forms of bullying cause emotional  and other health related complaints. The health related symptoms (psychosomatic symptoms) can go unrecognized for a long period of time until they are related to a bullying situation.

Health related complaints caused from bullying include, but are not limited to:

• stomach aches
• fatigue
• nausea
• sore muscles
• headaches
• depression
• anxiety
• shortness of breath
• dizziness
• tiredness
• drug/alcohol use/abuse
• back pain
• abdominal pain
• loss of appetite

Many times it is easier for students to ask to see the school nurse for these or similar complaints. If  you are the school nurse who realizes one of your students is being bullied then read on to see how you can help.

As a school nurse YOU CAN HELP!

1. Gather Information or Get School Admin to Gather Info:  Collaborate with other school employees (administration) to determine if the situation qualifies as a form of bullying (physical, verbal, cyber, social).

2. Be Supportive: Support the student being bullied and support all bystanders while the school administrators properly address the student bully according to school policy.

3. Educate: Help educate students and staff on bullying, prevention, and responding.

These steps are outlined in greater detail on the Stop Bullying website!.

List of online (anti)bullying resources:

PBS

Education

Stop Bullying

Stop Bullying Now DVD

Bullying

Kids Health

CDC

STRYVE

   

How can school nurse properly dispose of full sharps containers?

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

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Hopefully Helpful School Nurse Tip: Every school nurse should have a budget to run the their office. The dollar amount of that budget tends to vary greatly from one school district to another. Try establishing community collaborations to save some money.

Looks like our sharps container is FULL!

When I first started at this school, they paid hundreds of dollars each school year to have one sharps container properly disposed of. I was trying to save the school district some money in order to have a more funds in my supply budget.  This is what I came up with....

About seven years ago I asked the local fire department (fire fighters/EMTs/Paramedics) to dispose of one full sharps containers for the school district per year and to do it for FREE.  Thankfully, they kindly agreed and have done this for us every since.

Having a great working relationship with your local fire department and EMT service is good! 

Saving your school district money is even better!