How many have actually had to administer epi?

[Kittery]

I'm just curious, I've never had to *knock on wood* but I'm sure if I stay in school nursing long enough, the day will come. I run the scenario through my head all the time---if you have had to, I'd love to hear about your experience.

Also, the Illinois School Nurse Guidelines say a repeat dose can be given in 10 minutes if needed and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology says 5-15 minutes depending on response up to 3-4 doses. Does your school have clearer guidelines on how long between doses? Our action plans don't really have a place for physicians to indicate when to repeat the dose. Thank you!

[ohiobobcat]

Our "school physician" is just basically contracted to resign our standing orders each year, comes to a meeting with us, otherwise he doesn't do any other work for us. He's belongs to a large pediatric group here.

Same here!! I've actually never met our school physician. I've only been here a year and half. Apparently he has met with the other nurses, usually annually, but we never got around to meeting with him last year.

We have standing orders for epi as well (signed by the aforementioned elusive school physician). I trained all of my teaching staff to administer epi at one of our staff meetings.

I have never had to administer it here at school. I will ask the other nurses in the district today if they have ever had to give it at school at our meeting.

[100kids, BSN, RN]

My School Dr is a local family Dr who has agreed to serve in this role. I am in touch with him 1-2 times/year with paperwork things or questions but it's rare. I do have standing orders from him to have stock epi and non patient specific orders to assess and give this epi to anyone in the building without a known allergy BUT his standing orders ONLY cover RN's hired by the school district. I have people in my building trained for Epi pen admin for students who have known allergies and epi pens provided from home but only an RN employed by the school can give Epi to someone without a known allergy and their own epi pen. This is they only way the School Dr feels comfortable giving the standing orders and I can totally understand that.

[bsyrn, ASN, RN]

I have used epi pens on students both as a school nurse and camp nurse. Each time 911 was called and they were transported to the ER. Luckily, our EMS crews are close by so I did not have to give 2nd doses.