Episode 116: Ooops: When a Teacher Gets Hurt

Accidents and Injuries happen, but how do you know if you are prepared? In this three-part series Carrie and Kate discuss what to do next, best practices, and how to resolve the situation. 

In this week's episode, they will go over what to do if something happens to one of your teachers. How to cover for their class, be aware of next steps, and everything to do when they come back.

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Transcript

Welcome back to the colorful clipboard, Carrie, and I are so glad that you are joining us today. Today, we are going to talk about whoops. So basically, we are going to introduce a three-week series of what to do when somebody Falls when you have that child staff or even yourself, who perhaps, maybe has died more than a cut more than a cut a Injury more, that more than a Band-Aid. 

And so Carrie, why don't you share with us a scenario related to a kid? I've got a couple in my back pocket unfortunately but let's go ahead and start with a scenario and that you've worked with that. Perhaps, maybe your staff. Let's start with a great one. Let's start with one that your staff handled exactly. The way they were, I've been remarkably lucky. Considering how many years I've been in the industry. 

So the two that popped into my head. Both have to do with infants and so the one I want to talk about is a child brought back from the playground, a leaf which they failed to disclose to the teachers. And so the kid had, I don't know, stuck it in there overalls or something like that. And so they wash their hands and then put them immediately in the high chair for snack or lunch. And the child is sitting there, while the teacher's back is turned to get food together. The child takes the leaf out and puts it in their mouth and again, the teacher didn't. I mean, we're presuming, that's what happened because nobody was watching, right? And the child didn't have the leaf in their mouth when they came inside. 

And so they're feeding this child spoon food. You know, mushed up bananas, mushed up peas and the child started to not be able to swallow and ended up that the leaf was blocking their airway. And so when the teacher saw that the child wasn't swallowing and then the teacher then was like, wait, this child is not breathing. And then they took the child out of the high chair. Flip them upside down and do a nice little thump on the back.

That's how we know that. That's what the problem was and the child starts screaming and then the child immediately wants to eat because they're hungry and they're mad and teachers. Like, I'm not giving this child food right now. They need to be checked out by a doctor. So They went and gave the child. A bottle of milk would be okay to help the child calm down and get something in their tummy while they waited for the squad to come. 

Great, great. So I love that example. And I love how you shared what the teacher did. So what are the other bits and pieces that were left after that? So we've got the squad came, what else kind of happened at the same time. So the teacher went with the baby in the squad because that's what you do. And this was way back in the Dark Ages when everybody didn't have a cell phone. So when they got to the hospital, the teacher called the school to say we've arrived, this is the hospital we are at and you know, we're good. 

This is the update and then parents were called and said this is where the child was back at the center the next day. All right. And so are there stipulations to letting regulators? Agencies know how that works? Well, here in Texas licensing would have to be notified within 48 Hours of that happening. 

Okay, well, I think it's two business days but I just put it in everybody's head is 48 hours because I've known centers to get cited because they're closed for, you know, Memorial Day or whatever and something happened on a Friday and they didn't notify within two days. Well, it's two business days, but some Licensing reps, get a little wound up. So I just tell everybody 48 hours, I think that's a great safety caution. So to that I'm going to give, okay, but I was going to say one of the things that I know there's probably, you know, a couple of people listening to this going. Wait, why were the parents not called until the kid got to the emergency room one? This was back in the days when not everybody had a cell phone. So you couldn't text but I definitely wouldn't text your child's in an ambulance either. And, you know, I live in a metro area where there are multiple hospitals, and until you know which hospital that ambulance is going to land at I don't think you should call. If you know that the child is going to go in an ambulance, don't call the parents until you know where the ambulance has landed. 

We know that first day and PR is not mandatory for every teacher in the building. However, I disagree on a personal level. I understand why? Perhaps, not everybody does have it but I think it's a, it's easier because then you always know, you've got somebody who's on staff, it makes it. Yeah, so much easier from a staff perspective because then you can have anybody in the classroom by themselves. When the numbers 

go down as opposed to, I'm sorry, you can't go home early today because 

you're the first date or This classroom exam. So yeah II. Again 

I would say best practices is everyone on staff. I don't care if they're that your cook, their 

your bus driver. Maybe. Not your janitorial staff. If you have Janet 

Orioles down but the janitorial staff ever have in common contact with kids. Yes 

I would rather just have everybody get the training because you never 

know when they're going to be the closest person. To the person who's injured. 

I'm going to just do a complete one not 180, I don't know. 87 

degree turn, I don't know. And talk about a place 

where my daughter worked and there was a lot of 

child supervision and only the only people who had first aid 

and CPR were the managers. And 

because that's all that was legally required. Are you talking about the place that Marie also worked? Yes. 

Okay, so it was after Marie left because when Mary was there, she was actually the the highest trained 

staff person at 14. And so my 

daughter was the office manager and she 

had, she was a girl scout all the way through and so did all the different levels of Dade. 

Except for the last one because we couldn't find anybody who met our councils 

criteria, the year that she wanted to do it. And so, she 

was very comfortable with first aid. She also is a somewhat 

klutzy person and has had multiple concussions. So, she has that 

knowledge also, and there was a kid who was playing, 

so it's an indoor gym kind of a place and And there was a kid playing and they got 

a head Lac. What is that in real /? People words. What's a head Lac? Laughs? 

Hmm, laceration, laceration, cut scrape. Yeah, 

they were bleeding a lot from their forehead and the two 

staff members who were supervising literally froze, you know, there's three things 

that happen when you're in a dangerous situation. You Flee 

fight or freeze and they both froze. My 

daughter is in the other room sees this and is like, and 

goes in and it like, okay, where are the gloves? Somebody get 

me some gauze, you know, it's just like right on it and 

doesn't understand why the parents of the child aren't doing anything and 

neither are the supervisors. Of that group of children and be 

aware that if you only have one staff person for that group of children, 

who has the first aid and CPR training, they might be a freeze person, they 

freeze in a crisis, and then the other person in that group, maybe 

doesn't have the training. So while they might be, you know, an action taker in a crisis. 

They don't know what to do. So, and in each of those there, Some parts 

that went wrong. So you as a school leader, use 

these as examples of things to not copy. I 

I don't know how what all should have been maybe changed in the infant one other 

than, you know, have your infant staff look in babies mouths before, 

you know, when they come in from a playground, just in case they have stuck a A leaf in there because 

leaves are choking hazards. You won't choke to death. An adult, wouldn't choke 

to death. An older kid, wouldn't choke to death, but little babies and young toddlers. 

Don't have as much blood volume. So they it's a problem. Anyway, 

and it's funny when you were telling that story I kept waiting for you to tell me. It was a poison ivy leaf and that 

what happened was an elm leaf. So when they did so, this is back when they taught us to swipe 

which no longer your Longer supposed to swipe, this was when you're supposed to swipe and they 

couldn't get it because it's an elm leaf. And elm leaves are little. If it had been an oak leaf, this 

kid would have had a much less traumatic day so 

I mean, maybe don't plant only Elm trees around here. Infant playground. I don't know. I don't 

because kids will find stuff to stick in their mouth. They could do the same thing with a thick piece of construction 

paper, right? I'm thinking all those little rocks. Kids stuck in different 

places. Well, that was another story. I thought about that was the other one that immediately popped in my head was the kid who 

put a bean in the nose and nobody knew that they put a bead in the 

nose until the little piece of green started showing at the nostril a couple days later. Because 

the bean was grow way. That 

was that was fun, so that was another trip to the doctor's 

office. But you know, in 

each of those situations you've got different steps that needed to be followed when 

a child is bleeding profusely. Wrapping a really tight 

band aid on it. And then not telling anyone that had happened because 

you're like, I messed up. I wasn't supervising and I don't want to get in trouble. 

Well that's obviously what that teacher did right? They wrap the Band-Aid up really tight. 

So as to restrict blood flow and then didn't tell anybody 

until the end of the day because they were afraid they were going to get in trouble and then in addition 

to that, the staff being afraid for their job which you had in both of your 

situations and in addition to that, you had a 

director who win notified that you guys took the I'll two 

men seek medical care, didn't file, the appropriate Report with licensing 

and in the other situation you had people who weren't trained in how to do the paperwork. And again, we're 

afraid of losing their jobs. So we need to help 

our staff. Understand that. A child, getting hurt is not going to mean your 

job. Unless you lie about it and 

if you lie about it I'm firing you. So I think one thing that's really great 

about all these scenarios that we can kind of use and kind of our wrap-up is take 

these three scenarios to a staff meeting. We have a lot of directors who 

call us who are often stuck on what to do or you know, what kind of staff meeting 

or training, should they be doing? And if you have not 

sat down, With all of your staff to review, how to document 

an injury and illness, some sort of episode that's happened on a playground. This 

is a great time to use one of our examples. Even if you have 

examples that your program, I really discourage you from using your own programs examples because 

you don't want somebody to feel like they've been called out. You don't want somebody to feel like they 

know who you're talking about who maybe didn't do something right. Or make up 

your own scenarios, just make sure they don't match ones that have ever happened at your program and 

it's a great opportunity to walk through. I know that 

there are programs out there who their accident report. Forms 

are literally nothing but check marks and fill in the blanks and like no narrative. 

I don't know how that works for my insurance standpoint that probably wouldn't have necessarily helped us any, but at least it 

takes the staff to fill in all the blanks. They know 

that they aren't putting any emotion into what happened, right? It's what time 

and it's who, what where when why and how you know, it's what time we're to 

whom by whom if there was a there was another person involved you know 

just make sure that they actually really have a Clue on what they're writing. If you need examples 

are ideas reach out to us at Kate and carry at Texas. Kate or Kerry 

had a pleasure to different emails and texts director or carry a Texas director. 

We may have to make one that's Caton carry at Texas director but we don't want to, 

we have enough email to check so but feel free to reach out to us. Let us 

know what it is that you need help with were happy to help you. Come up with some additional scenarios and if 

you want some of those Live seven year olds or they might be 10 or 11, that can 

just play a seven-year-old on TV anyway. So let us know if there's anything we can do to help 

have a great week and we'll see you later.