Epi pens in classroom

[rn4kiddos]

Hi all

I will be starting in a new school district this year. I see from the previous nurses notes that all epi pens are kept in the classrooms with the teachers. All teachers apparently have mandatory training on epi pens. There is a stock epi that is kept in the nurses office. This is for a kindergarten center - so the kids stay with the same teacher all day.

I am wondering what you all think about this.

[RatherBHiking, BSN, RN]

We keep our epi pens in the nurses's office so they will be centrally located and the nurse can be in charge of giving them. However, if their allergy is severe we leave one epi pen in class and one in nurse's office. (They usually come in a double pack with severe allergies.) In this case, the teacher is taught how to use it and when. Older responsible kids are allowed to self carry. The only disadvantage to leaving them in classroom is what happens when teacher goes to lunch and child to lunch/recess/specials, etc. If teacher at lunch and child has issue on playground one would have to figure out which class student in, where that class was, and where in the class teacher kept it before being able to administer it. However, since you have a stock one in the main office it should be ok. If a teacher thought a student needed an epi pen they could call you, get epi pen out and you could give it if needed or be standby support. I think no matter how you have it set up as long as you have protocol in place it's good. We always train our teachers for field trips too so it's not much different than that. I think it's important to determine what your state practice allows and district protocols then go from there.