More questions!

KittyKatRN · Oct 13, 2020

Individual Health Plan- who creates these? The students PCP? Should this be done for asthmatics or does asthma action plan cover it?

These are typically created by the school nurse in order to make sure that staff working with the student are educated on the disease process and what their role is when working with the student I.e. send student with an escort to health office if complaining of shortness of breath or wheezing.

I have a student who has one but its two years old- as long as I ask Mom if anything has changed thats OK?

I call parents at the beginning of every school year and try to see if anything has changed over the Summer. This would be a great time for you to introduce yourself as the new school nurse and ask them if anything has changed.

What if a student is epileptic but hasn't had a seizure for years/since infancy? Is an individual health plan/action plan always needed? )I ask because sometimes it can be difficult to get anything from parents!

I would say it all depends on how comfortable you are with your staff. Do they know seizure first aid I.e. keep student physically safe, lower to the ground if in a chair, do not place anything in the mouth, start timing seizure and call for help. If you do not think that your staff would remember that in an emergency it might be best to have an IHP written up as a backup for them to reference.

Do you all chart on AEDs/daily checks etc at your school?

I know in my district we check the AEDs once a month. More than that I fear we waste its batteries.

Do you count controlled meds every shift? Looking for things I may have missed as I walked into this role with almost no training.

Again, in my district the nurse and the health tech count the controlled meds once a week to ensure the count matches the doses given. I hope this helps!