GOING BY THE BOOK: MEDICINE AT SCHOOL

 

I searched and read the Asthma and Allergy Foundation's  RESCUE website with interest. EVERY school system should have a program like it. I also read The National Association of School Nurses position brief which began,

"It is the position of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) that schools should stock Albuterol for emergency use by the registered professional school nurse (hereinafter referred to as school nurse) for students with symptoms of respiratory distress as specified in the standing order or protocol. To optimize student health, safety and learning, a school nurse should be present in every school, all day, every day to assure appropriate and timely assessment and treatment."
 

If only the recommendation of the NASN was the rule and not the exception. I suffered with Asthma as a child. Fortunately I outgrew it, but I still remember the terror of waking up at night not being able to catch my breath, banging on my bedroom wall, and being relieved to see my mother rush in with my inhaler. I remember lying in a hospital bed and frantically kicking at the plastic oxygen tent that seemed to be taking my breath away, as opposed to helping me breathe. I remember not being able to run for long periods of time in gym class. 
 

Several friends have asthma, and they keep their inhalers close. You hate to see anyone suffering, particularly when there is an immediate remedy. What I heard this afternoon during a phone call from a parent of an asthmatic child shocked and saddened me. What seemed like a common sense situation became so unnecessarily complicated and cruelly prolonged. When it comes to asthma and school children, adults can't afford to play games or politics.

So...

A child in your new class, who is known by adults at the school to have asthma, suffers an attack in your classroom. You:

1. give him or her a pass, and send him or her alone and wheezing to the office of the new school nurse.

So...

You're the new school nurse. A child suffering from an asthma attack shows up at your office door. You:

1. Search for health services forms and interrogate the wheezing student who is trying to tell you who has his albuterol (since the student can't carry it on his or her person).

2. Phone the child's parent to scold them for not updating the child's medical forms for the current school year, and continue to withhold the Albuterol.

3. Learn that a staff member has been authorized by the parent to administer the child's Albuterol but you don't ALLOW him or her to do it either.

4. Phone the parent again and ask if he or she wants you to call 911 or not, and if so, inform them that it will COST them (as if the child isn't worth the cost of an ambulance ride to the ER).

5. Tell the parent he or she must leave his or her place of employment, and drive over an hour to come to the school to administer the Albuterol him or herself.

6. Cop an attitude when the frustrated parent arrives, watch as the child successfully administers the medication, and then give the parent forms (to completed by the child's pediatrician)-- so that the next time the child shows up at your office door, you won't hesitate to help.

It's the third day of school. The child missed morning classes, and suffered not because there was an earthquake, fire or flood; not because the Albuterol was not there; not because no one knew how to administer it, not because some alien spacecraft disabled all of the phones, but because THE BOOK says the child can't, the parent's authorized agent can't, and the nurse WON'T administer medication unless forms have been updated.

Only thinking of the child and ignorant of procedures, I had two questions. "WHY DID NO ONE CALL 911???", AND "WHY WAS THE CHILD'S ALBUTEROL NOT IN THE CLASSROOM?????

The school year has only just begun. I'm an old mother, and don't have a dog in this hunt, but what I heard today made me angry, and prompted me to ask a third question: "WHAT'S WRONG WITH PEOPLE??? What would it have taken to just give the poor child the medicine? Why insist that the parent leave their place of employment to do what at least THREE people on the premises could have done IMMEDIATELY? 
I know. I know. 
Regulations. 
Liability. 
Priorities. 
Protocol. 
Procedures.
The sad part is that the child won't be thinking about forms, or who did or didn't fill them out. The child will be wondering why the adults all around him or her are content to let him or her suffer.

So...Prince George's County Parents, if your child takes medication, PLEASE make sure ALL consent and authorization forms are updated no matter what arrangements you made LAST YEAR. I know forms can be a pain, repetitive, seemingly unnecessary, and time consuming. You may think you've completed them already. You may not even KNOW about them, but if your child has even the SLIGHTEST medical issue, find out what your rights AND responsibilities are ASAP.
Today's ridiculousness proved that people will allow your child to suffer, delay helping, and blame it on your negligence. Stay on top of things this school year. Be an advocate. Make those appointments and visit your child's school when you can. 

You may have authorized the librarian to administer your child's medication because last year there WAS no nurse at your child's school. Maybe you're friends with the gym teacher, or the cafeteria lady, or the Art teacher and don't mind them attending to your child, but someone else, like the new school nurse, (who, unlike your child, wasn't there last year when you gave a trusted adult employee written permission to administer your child's meds), might have a huge problem with that.

Have common sense and compassion been replaced by stiff-necked insensitivity and indifference? Children should NEVER suffer because adults don't think, are fearful, or are just as thick as a brick!!! A child could have died, and all over forms? Is there no database of returning students that the nurse could have referred to? Was the form filled out in SY 2016-17 THAT obsolete? Or... how about the words of the parent, the parent's authorized agent, AND the child? Did that not matter either? 

Parents, in a litigious climate, where people are hesitant to do the right thing because something might actually go right, make sure you have followed EVERY line in the school handbook where your child is concerned. Check those book bags and backpacks for notices. Visit the school website. Return forms on time, and completed in full. What happened LAST school year may not apply THIS school year. What Miss So-and-So let slide LAST year may not fly THIS year. Don't assume there is wiggle room where policies are concerned.
Your child's life and health may depend on it.