EPI Pen Protocol

Specialties Camp

Published

I am a newly graduated nurse, and my first job is at a summer day camp. I am wondering what should my protocol be for EPI pens. Right now I am keeping them at my office. I accompany the campers on field trips, and I bring all necessary meds, including EPI pens, along with me. However, our pool is offsite, and I do not accompany campers to the pool. I stay on site in my office. I am not sure what I should be doing with the Epi pens. Some of our campers are very small and a lot of the parents do not want them to keep them for fear of losing them. I trust our counselors to be able administer the pen, but I am worried about constantly handing off the Epi pens back and forth everyday, again because I do not want them to get lost. Am I allowed to delegate the use of an Epi pen to a counselor? I am getting very stressed about this, and want to make sure I am doing the safest thing possible for our campers. Do most camps keep the pens with the campers or in the office?

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Specializes in Med Tele, Gen Surgical.

Here ya go:

https://allnurses.com/gsearch.php?cx=partner-pub-9350112648257122%3Avaz70l-mgo9&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=summer+camp+epi

I have a feeling you might find some good direction in prior threads. Thanks for asking! I'm an RN and parent of a kid who has an epi-pen Rx for peanut allergy induced anaphylaxis. Good to know you're thinking along those lines for care planning. I've never been a summer camp nurse, so I thought directing you to prior answers might be a bit better.

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We send Epi-pens and inhalers wherever the camper goes. We are a camp of about 300 boys, so we have quite a few PRN inhalers and epi. All out of camp trips have to give us a list of campers who are going 24 hours in advance. We then pull their face sheet, PRN meds, daily meds etc and pack in the first aid kit along with the camp epi-pen and epi box (1 vial epi and 3 syringes). Then whoever is taking the campers on the trip (Day trip, overnight, inter-camp, etc) comes to the health center and picks up their first aid kit and signs out the PRN meds. This works pretty well- you just need to have a good inventory of all the PRNs when the campers arrive.

It can get kind of crazy sometimes when a group of kids who have epi all go on the same trip and they have 4 or 5 epi pens for a day trip- but per our camp policy each kid's epi pen goes with them.

Most campers come with at least 2 epi-pens. We put one in the different units at camp in the directors cabin (along with a camp epi)...

Sorry if this is confusing- let me know if you have any questions or need clarification!

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Thanks so much to both of you! I have implemented a system with signing meds in and out. It's slightly tedious but I feel MUCH better about the safety of our campers.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Maybe if you cross-ask in the School Nurse Forum they can help you. They always have kids going somewhere and they may have suggestions for you.

Those nurses are awesome!

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