Medication Policies/Procedures

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Does anyone have a med dispensing p&p that they would be willing to share? We used to pour into coin envelopes for the counselors to give but have been told that the nurse must now personally give the meds. I just can't quite figgure out how to manage to get meds to 200(ish) campers at the same time and remain sane. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

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Does anyone have a med dispensing p&p that they would be willing to share? We used to pour into coin envelopes for the counselors to give but have been told that the nurse must now personally give the meds. I just can't quite figgure out how to manage to get meds to 200(ish) campers at the same time and remain sane. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

200 campers?? They expect you to do that??

If these are "campers", are they not able to come to YOU to get the meds??

Looks like it would save time for them to come to you. You're going to be pouring pills for awhile.

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200 campers?? They expect you to do that??

If these are "campers", are they not able to come to YOU to get the meds??

Looks like it would save time for them to come to you. You're going to be pouring pills for awhile.

I work for a fencing camp that usually has about thirty campers during a two week session. I am the only nurse on duty. I have an office where the campers with medications are instructed to come to pick up their medications. I pre-pour into envelopes the night before for a.m drugs, the afternoon before for p.m. drugs. If a camper fails to come to pick up their meds, I report it to the coach in their fencing group and they a) have points deducted as a demerit on the camp reward system and b) cannot participate in activities until they have seen me and taken the meds. Inevitably, a straggler would become habitual about not checking in with me, but after being called out by me in front of the group to come to the nurse's office, they became more cooperative. I don't know how well this would work with a group this size. Do you have any nursing assistants who can help you with this one? Perhaps if you labelled the envelopes with contents and your signature as having poured the meds, you could still have a nursing assistant pass out the pills. How do you identify campers with that many around for positive ID? Hope this helps.

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Does anyone have a med dispensing p&p that they would be willing to share? We used to pour into coin envelopes for the counselors to give but have been told that the nurse must now personally give the meds. I just can't quite figgure out how to manage to get meds to 200(ish) campers at the same time and remain sane. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

We used to have them blister packed. It really helped. We didn't have to prefill everyday.

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We used hard plastic med boxes..... those things with each day, and or times on them..... at one of the camps, the first day of camp, in addition to checking kids in, meeting parents, and doing lice/athletes foot checks, and educating the kids/counselors on basic rules of the infirmary, we filled these boxes for each kid on regular meds.

For some kids, on lots of meds we'd have an AM, a NOON, and a PM box...

We then had some larger cardboard boxes.... and we'd have some labeled am, some noon, and some pm....

all am meds went into the am cardboard boxes.... etc.

then we'd put the larger cardboard boxes into a wagon, and bring them with us to meals.....

We'd have about 20 - 30 kids per breakfast and dinner for meds....

about 5 at lunch

and about 10 at bedtime.

this was with having 180 kids in camp.

The 2nd camp i was at did similar but we poured them all into coin envelpes with labels on them....that had, name of kid, unit, and meds in the envelope, and time it was to be given....

we brought the envelopes to meals.....

We had about 150 kids there....

and had about 30 meds in the am, 3-5 at noon

20 at dinner

and 30 - 40 at bedtime.

IF the kids were to have a sleepout or something..... off grounds.... we required that they give us 24 hrs notice..... and then we just sent the envelopes with the counselors.

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We use labeled cups with lids, which I pre-pour. (Though with the number of inhalers, sometimes it barely seems to save time to pre-pour the POs...). The campers come up one group at a time and I ID by calling out the name on the cup, do a quick recheck of what's inside, and dump the pill in the kid's hand. It doesn't take too long, but I probably do 30 kids max at each med-time.

For overnights, I teach the staff how to give the med and document it, and have them bring back the empty containers. I also talk to the kids about it and remind them to ask the counselors for the meds.

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Does anyone have a med dispensing p&p that they would be willing to share? We used to pour into coin envelopes for the counselors to give but have been told that the nurse must now personally give the meds. I just can't quite figgure out how to manage to get meds to 200(ish) campers at the same time and remain sane. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

Awhile back someone mentioned a bubble pack that they used for dispensing meds. Anyone have any info on that?

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The pharmacy affiliated with our camp provided us with blister packs for the meds. When the campers arrived, the pharmacist helped us package them for dispension, then left us with unfilled ones so that we were able to fill them with new meds or refills throughout the summer. It was great, and we didn't have to prefill meds in envelopes every day. Good luck.

Awhile back someone mentioned a bubble pack that they used for dispensing meds. Anyone have any info on that?
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Awhile back someone mentioned a bubble pack that they used for dispensing meds. Anyone have any info on that?

I'm not sure if I can mention the website on here? (I have no affiliation with them and my camp doesn't use them.) But if you do a google search for "camp meds" you'll find the website of a company with which many camps contract.

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Does anyone have a med dispensing p&p that they would be willing to share? We used to pour into coin envelopes for the counselors to give but have been told that the nurse must now personally give the meds. I just can't quite figgure out how to manage to get meds to 200(ish) campers at the same time and remain sane. Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

We used Camp Meds . The meds are pre-packed in little labeled envelopes. I was at a camp without sufficient medical staff, so Camp Meds probably saved my sanity. I will probably never do camp nursing again--it was horrible. Many extremely troubled kids at this fitness/weight loss camp. And a lot of neurotic parents. And not enough drinking water (a serious problem at a summer camp!)

I could go on and on...but won't. Dana at Camp Meds was extremely helpful.

Good luck.

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I will probably never do camp nursing again--it was horrible. Many extremely troubled kids at this fitness/weight loss camp. And a lot of neurotic parents. And not enough drinking water (a serious problem at a summer camp!)

I could go on and on...but won't.

If there's anything you liked about it, I hope you'll consider trying a different type of camp. There's a real need out there...

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If there's anything you liked about it, I hope you'll consider trying a different type of camp. There's a real need out there...

You're right, of course. I was feeling especially disgusted when I wrote that post. I've actually had several recommendations for good camps, where the same staff come back year after year. (That's a very good sign!). So I probably will try camp nursing again when I have the time off from my 'real' job.

Thanks.

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