Essential oils?

Specialties School

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Forgive me if this has already been addressed - I'm looking at the site on my laptop and don't see where I can search for a previous topic. Anyway... I've recently learned that some of the school nurses in a nearby district use essential oils (via diffuser) in their offices. I'm awaiting a response from the state ed department on this, but what are your thoughts? No one in my district uses them, and none of us plan to. Just curious to know whether anyone else out there is doing this. I'd be concerned about it being a problem for students with asthma.

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Why are they using the oils? For treatment of students? If so, that in my opinion, should not be. Oils are not regulated by the FDA and thus without a physician order cannot be used as treatment. Now if they are diffusing for scent control or for self relaxation, although a bit of a stretch it is the same as spraying an air freshener. This topic has been discussed before, hopefully you can search on another platform and find the treads. Good luck.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

i don't condone the use of essential oils in school. But that being said, I know that there are ways of parents letting students use them and teachers using them that I can do little about. Like halohg said, I can sort of equate it with perfume /Axe body spray use or a teacher getting the funk out of their room by using some glade. If I walk in and smell something and see the mist, I ask them not to use it while the kids are in the room. If they need to have a little lavendar during their prep, knowing some of their students, I can totally understand! With the kids, I tell the parents that have asked that they can use nothing that can affect another child. Some of the kids get oiled before school. Some wear a wristband (vibes up type thing) that i really don't notice a scent coming off of.

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I personally would not use essential oils or essential oil diffusers in my office. Many people have extreme opinions one way or the other about essential oils, so I'd rather just steer clear completely. Sometimes my office gets a funky scent from a student or from the always wonderful vomit on the nurse's office floor. I'll use a quick spray of air freshener if my office is empty, but if there are children around then I just have to get used to the funk.

I'm not sure if any of my students are using essential oils. I haven't been made aware of any situations, but if a complaint comes in the future I'll ask students and parents to only use the oils at home as to not trigger any respiratory issues.

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Thank you all for your input. State Ed got back to me, and like I expected, they said essential oils are a no-no. They didn't clarify (yet) as far as using them in a diffuser for the sake of the nurse, but the nurse(s) in question are using them in a diffuser for the students, not themselves, not a good idea. They also told me that even with a parent or doctor's request/order, we can refuse to administer because they're not FDA sanctioned. Personally, with a doctor's order, I don't think I'd have a problem with it (depending on the health status of other students in my office at the time) - but I'm certainly not doing it without an order.

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Ahhhh essential oils. The Glade Plugins of the healthcare world.:roflmao:

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Hahahaha! Love that, broughden!!!

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