Medication Situation

[Keepstanding]

If a parent of a student who receives medication continually accuses you of over medicating their child, would you refuse to administer the medication ?

[Cattz, ADN]

Holy crap. This is a new one on me. If you have done all you can do (and it certainly sounds like you have). I would probably be resorting to having the mom be responsible for coming to give it. This may also result in the order being magically changed to being given to the sweet little darling AT HOME!!

Just food for thought. How much, and how often does mom supply for you to give it at school? Maybe just a week's worth would be easier for her to make sure that it lasts as many days as it is supposed to. That is ridiculous. Geeee. Parents...Ugh.

[OldDude]

Liquid Ritalin. I have a doctor's order. Mother has made several comments that I have given him too much and he does not act like himself some afternoons. So of course......it's the nurses fault. What ??? She made mention of this once last year and twice this year so far. I am not risking my license on this L.D. that's for sure. Mother can come and give it. I'm out !!!!

You bet...run! Quillivant XR at home before school or she can come to school and give it.

[kidzcare]

Silly. If you have a count, then you can show here that the prescribed amount is being given. If she feels the prescribed amount is too much, then she can take it up with the prescriber. You CANNOT give more or less than the order says without specific orders.

I just had a conversation like this earlier today with a parent who asked to leave a discontinued dose of her student's medication at the school just in case we ran out before she was able to bring in the higher dose. I told her "I cannot dispense any medication that I do not have an order for. If your doctor wants to write an order that the lower dose is OK to give if the higher dose is not in the office, then it can be faxed to me and I will have it on file." Same mom I had an issue with yesterday- she was trying to convince me that it has never been a problem to have her student transport his Adderall into the school... Call to my nursing supervisor who told me that this has been an ongoing issue with this parent and that she has been told on multiple occasions that her kid cannot bring in the meds. So I called her back and told her all of that and that if she had an issue with our policy (which is also state law) that she could talk to an administrator. Surprise, surprise, she was able to bring it in this morning.

[BeckyESRN]

I had a similar situation last year, same med but mom kept saying I wasn't giving him enough. It got to the point that our administrator had to step in and insist that mom have the pharmacist draw up each school dose into a syringe. She'd bring in a 20 or so 5ml syringes (with caps to prevent any issues) full each month, I'd hand the kid one, he'd drink it and no one could question the amount given. Pharmacists will usually go out their way to make school packaging as easy as possible for everyone involved; maybe this would be an option for you?

If not, I don't think I'd be comfortable giving the medication if the mother was going to continue to accuse me of over-medicating her kid.

[kidzcare]

I had a similar situation last year, same med but mom kept saying I wasn't giving him enough. It got to the point that our administrator had to step in and insist that mom have the pharmacist draw up each school dose into a syringe. She'd bring in a 20 or so 5ml syringes (with caps to prevent any issues) full each month, I'd hand the kid one, he'd drink it and no one could question the amount given. Pharmacists will usually go out their way to make school packaging as easy as possible for everyone involved; maybe this would be an option for you?

If not, I don't think I'd be comfortable giving the medication if the mother was going to continue to accuse me of over-medicating her kid.

This is a great solution if mom is questioning the dose. Plus it's easier to count in!