I have these two students who take their inhalers for PE, and these are new students for me, so I'm still getting used to their schedule. On the schedule it says PE W, Th and F. So I have an alarm for them set up, and yesterday I called them in for them, but they informed me they will not have PE, but health class, so I didn't give them their inhalers and sent them on their way. I'm sure one of the inhalers were in the box, but today I called them in again and his was not in the box. I looked all over my desk and my room, and so far I have not found it. I called my operations manager and I can tell she's upset with me. We talked to the principal and we decided to establish a sign out sheet for medications and we would talk to the School Health Manager (Who's in charge of us) and ask what we should do in this situation.
I'm super worried, because our medication box is broken and won't lock anymore. So I have to lock my door each time I leave, but when I have a student in here, I leave the door open and they told me I should not do that. I didn't mean for this to happen, but now I'm worried if my job will be in jeopardy.
Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.
What I do for field trips is this:
I copy their orders and MAR, the copy of the order and original MAR goes on the field trip with the medicine. Papers go in a folder, meds go in ziplock bags.
I leave myself a BIG note in my medicine cabinet to get the medicines as soon as the field trip gets back (another plus of being in the front office, I hear them arrive and go to meet them to get the meds. Anything that has to be counted, I do before and after with the teacher in charge.
This might be something helpful to do in the future. I know you're beating yourself up over this but my goodness, why didn't the teachers bring the medicines back to you!?!
I don't give medicines to parents to administer on field trips, I give them to the teacher. If it is their own child's med, they can grab it from the teacher should the child need it but it otherwise stays in the possession of the teacher.
The teacher forgot she had them in a bag but I got in trouble because I was freaking out on where the medications and we thought someone took them. And also because of my giant mess of a room and disorganization, so that's why I got in trouble.
I copy their orders and MAR, the copy of the order and original MAR goes on the field trip with the medicine. Papers go in a folder, meds go in ziplock bags.
I leave myself a BIG note in my medicine cabinet to get the medicines as soon as the field trip gets back (another plus of being in the front office, I hear them arrive and go to meet them to get the meds. Anything that has to be counted, I do before and after with the teacher in charge.
This might be something helpful to do in the future. I know you're beating yourself up over this but my goodness, why didn't the teachers bring the medicines back to you!?!
I have teacher forget to return meds (inhaler, epi-pens mainly) all. the. time. It drives me crazy to track them down! I've trained a few teachers well, but, ugh. They also like to hold on my field trip first kits. I hunt those down too...
But I do have a check-up for sheet for myself to make sure I get everything returned.
Don't be so hard on yourself - you've identified the problem and are taking steps to fix it. Maybe you could "visit" another school building to watch how their office is set up? Your School Nurse Manager also should come and help you get things set up and organized. This forum is also AMAZING...I've found some great ideas through the years!
Too often we're just thrown to wolves & told " get it together " ....You'll figure out what works for YOU !
Amethya
1,821 Posts