Health guidelines for admission to camp

patabe · Dec 1, 2009

The questions i need to ask about admission day is what kind of camp, is child accompanied by parent and where are the medical records and meds if needed?

I set up a sheet that has child's name any allergies diagnosis, health issues, medicatios on and received. My camp is for wheel chair and physically disabled children.

With illness at admission- not to start till illness resolved for 24 hours- parent can bring them back and you can reassess them. I take everyones temp on admission day. Also get a team of nurses not just you and a counslor so you can do a real assessment and trouble shot.

I also inform all parents that if I find that their child is ill they will have to be sent home until fever or symptom for 24-48 hours with no meds.

Make sure the med orders are all in order before they come as you know this can be real reouble. If i have a child on seizure meds and there is a problem I won't allow them to stay as I can't afford them to have seizures with out my ability to medicate. Remember that if things are not in order it can be a medication error. Another thought is with seizure meds some parents try to reduce the meds when out of school. Camp is not the place to play that game and I inform my parents of seizure medicatios that they have to under control and no reduction while at camp-saftey is very important.

Just some thoughts. I hope you think some of this is helpful. Good luck:D:D

JaClasse · Dec 1, 2009

Thanks for the input. It is a privately-owned Christian camp with 7-8 sessions in the summer for grades 2-12. Campers pre-register online starting in January, but then update their registration when they arrive. Most are basically healthy kids. Some arrive with their parents. However many car-pool and are not with their parents. There is only one Health Professional (it can be an EMT or RN) on duty 24/7 for that session. Registration is a mad scramble to get medications checked in - it is difficult to ask what questions we need to, much less have time to examine each camper. I do enlist the help of a staff member, but we rely A LOT on parents/campers giving us straight answers. (We do document their answers)

I think our guidelines for medications are right in line with what you are saying. I am just mainly concerned about when to refuse campers admission and when to send them home. I hate to see them miss out and yet I know that for the "health of all" it is a necessity. With only one Health Professional, it is impossible to care for ill campers for any extended period of time. That's why protocols would be nice - it would give me (us) guidelines, so that emotions wouldn't have as much of an opportunity to "muddy" things up, if you know what I mean.

patabe · Dec 1, 2009

I know your frustration. Remember your Lic. and do not set your self up for trouble. The camp Director can not really know the implications unless you are very direct with them.

I let the parents know with a letter what will be excluded from camp until they are better. You are only one person-heaven help you and keep in mind you are the ONLY ONE THEY HAVE so speak up! No fevers no lice and i ask kids if they took Motrin before they came for a fever- some of them slip up na di catch them. As in school a sick child can not appreciate camp when they are ill and you can not be awake 24 hours and be a good nurse.

The CDC speaks to ILI and they are clear about fever. I also ask if the child has been around anyone in the last 7-3 days with a fever or ILI. You really can not care for ill campers with fever for you will be up all night and remember how well they share things, like germs and lice.

When my director sends out the registeration package and the physical exam he puts the information for at least temp exclusion on all papers in BOLD print.So their are no surprises on the first day. You must have him /her on board- the big problem is the $$$ they lose if the kid can not start the first day- this can not be avoided. let the director or assistant stay up every night with the sick kid they pushed you into letting in.

Camp should also be a good experience for you, not an ordel. I am very well paid at my camp as well as the other nurses I work with but nothing is worth the aggraviation a director can put you through when they are not supportive. I just remembered you ahve a doctor associated with your camp- have him also on board with reasons to exclude from camp-

teeniebert, LPN · Dec 2, 2009

We check heads, feet, and temperatures at check-in.

Lice = home. No exceptions.

If a camper has s/sx of athlete's foot, they have to wear shoes (aquasox or flip-flops) for showering and the shower stall gets bleached after they use it. All campers SHOULD have shower shoes, but they're on the 'recommended' gear list and not the 'required' list. Camp has a bunch of dollar store flip-flops for anyone that needs them.

Temperatures over 99.6 get re-taken and the camper evaluated for other symptoms. It's up to the Health Officer to decide whether the camper should go home or not.

I'm lucky in that the Camp Director has done every camp job possible--CIT, Unit Assistant, Unit Leader, Riding Assistant, Riding Director, Lifeguard, Health Officer, Program Coordinator, Assistant Director, Ranger...she's seen head lice and gastroenteritis go through the camp in days or hours, so if a camper needs to go home, they go home. No fussing about the money, at least not until the main office calls.

SnowbirdRN · Apr 28, 2010

you guys send kids home with a temp no matter what? are you a day camp?? I rarely send kids home (with an exception of last summer and h1n1).

smiley321 · May 3, 2010

My camp is similar in that I am the only healthcare staff. On admission I had two staff members ask the pre-screening questions I had assigned to them (Any allergies? Current injuries/illness? Fever, cough, diarrhea, vomitting in the past week? Any medications? Anything you would like to speak to the healthcare provider privately about?) , then I spoke to anyone who answered yes. That way I was personally able to assess campers and determine their level of health upon entering camp.

To answer your question, personally I did not have one camper who came to camp with a fever or flu-like illness, but had that happened I would have quarantined them in the health centre and called home (especially with H1N1 going around!). This would have been mainly to inform parents that their child was sick, and to give them the option to take them home right away or to wait it out for 12 hours then reassess. If their child was still sick in 12 hours, they would have been sent home. I did however have several kids spike a fever after the first day, and I did the same thing: quarantine them and call home. Most parents preferred to take their kids home until they were feeling better, which went along with the protocol anyways, which was to send home any camper who needs to spend >12 hours in the health centre.