There has been much said about providing confidential student medical information to school staff and how that impacts privacy issues.
Regardless of which rule applies, simply informing a child's teacher of a particular medical condition only scratches the surface. My major area of concern, especially on the elementary level, is that the kids aren't with the same person/teacher all day. They are supervised by multiple staff members throughout the day when the teacher may not be present; PE, Music, Music Movement, Computer Lab, Library, Science Lab, class switching, etc. For example all of these staff members must be informed that "little Johnny" in Mrs. XYZ's class has a life threatening allergy to peanut products. There is a variety of snack food and drink all over this campus. Additionally,...at some point in time throughout the school year these staff members will have substitutes. My opinion is if I disseminate to the appropriate staff and represent that the information is "Confidential Student Medical Data" and someone who needs to know this information discloses it in an inappropriate manner - then that's their individual liability and doesn't constitute a privacy violation by the nurse or school.
What other method of passing on the information is available in lieu of some written form?
By providing the medical information to the school, does a parent imply consent that those charged with the care of their child be informed of that medical information?
This reared it's ugly head yesterday when one of my special ed pre-k students was given a substance with egg whites to play with and he has a documented egg allergy. He broke out in hives, i gave benadryl and called mom. Mom wasn't too upset, i think i was more upset that there was no inquiry and that the activity wasn't run by me first, especially with a student that wasn't regular to the classroom.
Similar thing happened to me last year. Kids with known severe egg allergy participated in egg toss on the last day of school. Egg broke, hit kid, he broke out in hives almost immediately. I had reinforced his allergy two days prior after learning about the activities, suggesting he should not handle an egg. Deaf ears. Gave him benadryl and he was fine, Mom okay with it, thank goodness.
I wish we had an electronic system with icons! But it is interesting really that I admit that I can worry more that an email will fall into the wrong hands before a piece of paper does sometimes - that digital trail remains.
i will say that after i made sure the kid was okay and gave him the benadryl i made sure that i had done my part way back when and put those allergies in the system. Thankfully my system has a date stamp that shows when i created the alert so i can prove that that particular alert was made months ago when the student started.
Kenderella 89 - Can I ask you for the link to the YouTube video that you like about EpiPens and s/sx of anaphpylaxis?
There is a video that the School Health Unit of Mass DPH recommends to assist school nurses in training staff. It is a training video and then there is a certificate that is completed and can be either emailed or printed when the teacher is finished. We still have the teachers demonstrate use of the epipen. The link is below:
Specializes in School Nursing, Public Health Nurse.
Kenderella 89 - Can I ask you for the link to the YouTube video that you like about EpiPens and s/sx of anaphpylaxis?
There is a video that the School Health Unit of Mass DPH recommends to assist school nurses in training staff. It is a training video and then there is a certificate that is completed and can be either emailed or printed when the teacher is finished. We still have the teachers demonstrate use of the epipen. The link is below:
They are little Epi Pen reminder tags my students can put on their backpack or purse (apparently backpacks are "out of style" now) for students who do not have a back up epi pen in the office.
Epi-Pen has an awesome website with videos and demonstrations. An epi-pen two-pack will have a blank demonstrator pen to practice with. I have several pts who are teachers or principals. One pt said their school has a list of food allergy kids with their names, pictures, and specific food allergies in the school nurse's office AND the cafeteria manager's office. The cafeteria has epi-pens in there so there's no running back and forth to the school nurse's office in the event of a reaction.
When I do an IHP for a student with, let's say, a peanut allergy; my care plan includes informing and educating all the staff members John Q. Student will come in contact with on a regular basis. The parent signs off on this care plan; therefore, confirms having knowledge of and approves the fact that I will be sharing that information.
JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN
3,035 Posts
Similar thing happened to me last year. Kids with known severe egg allergy participated in egg toss on the last day of school. Egg broke, hit kid, he broke out in hives almost immediately. I had reinforced his allergy two days prior after learning about the activities, suggesting he should not handle an egg. Deaf ears. Gave him benadryl and he was fine, Mom okay with it, thank goodness.
I wish we had an electronic system with icons! But it is interesting really that I admit that I can worry more that an email will fall into the wrong hands before a piece of paper does sometimes - that digital trail remains.