Dealing with a sick tutee is hard. Now that the swine flu has pretty much scared everyone, when someone comes into the Writing Center with a cough, box of tissues, nasal spray, and/or hand sanitizer your first reaction is to stay clear from he/she. It is our first intuition to move away from someone who's coughing or sneezing but, when in the Writing Center, moving away from a tutee can be offensive. Even though you are scared of the tutee's contagious cold/flu, we have to be kind and considerate of the tutee and his or her condition. After all, they came in for your help.
Today, I encountered a situation like this today. My tutee was sick and warned me from the start by stating he had 'flu like symptoms.' I wanted to line the table with Clorox wipes and place the hand sanitizer on the table but I thought that would scare the tutee away by not making him feel welcomed.(I am using sarcasm here--I'm not that mean) But what I decided to do was to make him feel comfortable and provided him with tissues, helped him with his work and distanced myself a little more than I usually do when working with a tutee. The session only lasted 15 minutes because he didn't feel well and just wanted to get an understanding of the assignment so after he left I cleaned.
The session was successful even though I was nervous the entire time. I thought, if I sanitize myself and the table we were working at--it will all be fine.
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Amanda, you're braver than I. Though I cannot be sure what I would have done had the situation presented itself, I fear I might have politely and sincerely alerted the student to the newly-implimented URI-flu-like-symptoms-rule and suggested s/he head home and email me. I'd maybe try to start up some form of electronic, germ-free tutoring situation even if it was outside of my hours. While I'd feel obligated to tutor (s/he did come in for help!) I'd not want to risk becoming sick myself and not being about to tutor (help others!) for a week. I feel like the electronic tutoring situation would be a nice middle ground between doing what we feel is right (tutoring) and staying flu-free.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you handled the session really well. FYI, though, it's always OK to walk away from a session if you feel really uncomfortable. . .
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