Narcan for School Nurses?

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Are you all trained in using Narcan at your school?

I've used it in the hospital, but it looks like the push is to get Narcan at school.

I am going to go to NYSSED and research, but am curious about what you do.

NASN has not legislated it, it supports those schools who do choose and encourages all.

In NH, EVERYTHING is local control, so it will be up to each district.....will be very interesting.

In RI it is mandated for every middle and high school.

I know NASN didn't legislate it; I'm a member. Not sure where you got that.

I was talking about NASN supporting it and the reasons.

The laws in California mandate ALL districts although if you really can't get people to be trained then I think that is your out. And those days are coming for the educational staff. At least here. One of them is married to a board member too. ;)

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Specializes in Peds, School Nurse, clinical instructor.

We just got trained on administering narcan via the nasal atomizer. We are just waiting on a board approved protocol then we will keep it in with our stock meds.

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Many states like MA and South Carolina have public health initiatives which teaches parents or community members to carey and give narcan. I know the project in the Carolinas was called the "lazarus program". The drug epidemic is rampant, kids today really have no idea what they are taking. Kids are dying. The biggest issue is not just heirion and opiates but bath salts, portporri- yes portporri the smelly flowers- they call it spice- but it's porturri. Not to mention using their creative and innovative brains to make drugs out of cough meds and other basement drugs like ecstasy.

The program was started for parents of children with drug addiction to do CPR until the ambulance gets there. It's sad that it's come to this, it saves lives and I would not be surprised if school nurses and other types of places kids hang out like school football games, dances, etc.

its a different world. Totally different.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

I am not aware of any pending legislation in my state, but I'll check. Frankly, I would be supportive of it. We have an asthma/anaphylaxis protocol, and give Diastat and Glucagon without any real difficulty, but I believe that the prevailing small-town, family like culture of our school district and our agency influence that.

Am I the only one who thinks that this medication might be crucial for adults in the buildings, just as much as students?

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I am not aware of any pending legislation in my state, but I'll check. Frankly, I would be supportive of it. We have an asthma/anaphylaxis protocol, and give Diastat and Glucagon without any real difficulty, but I believe that the prevailing small-town, family like culture of our school district and our agency influence that.

Am I the only one who thinks that this medication might be crucial for adults in the buildings, just as much as students?

You make a good point but it is so funny that you are in a rural district and so was I.

Do you have full time medical staff? Nurses? Aides? A physician who oversees it all?

Because we do not.

Part-time nurses here. No nurse on every campus for the most part.

It is very hard to run a medical clinic with office staff. :wideyed:

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Narcan is used also to RULE OUT opiate overdose - give narcan to see for a response, if so, probably opiate OD. The only side effect is immediate withdrawal.

Don't defer to the police department! They are law enforcement officers, we are healthcare providers!!

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

I do see it having some use with so many kids today raiding their folks medicine cabinets - It can be given much like an epi-pen.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Narcan is used also to RULE OUT opiate overdose - give narcan to see for a response, if so, probably opiate OD. The only side effect is immediate withdrawal.

Don't defer to the police department! They are law enforcement officers, we are healthcare providers!!

Are you a school nurse? In some states one school nurse is in charge of 11 schools. Police/first responders are often on scene before the school nurse cab arrive from another site

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Narcan is used also to RULE OUT opiate overdose - give narcan to see for a response, if so, probably opiate OD. The only side effect is immediate withdrawal.

Don't defer to the police department! They are law enforcement officers, we are healthcare providers!!

Wrong. Calling 911 for a teenage OD brings ambulance and FD. Both of which have EMTs, who have already been using Narcan.

I'm thinking any plan would to administer Narcan while at the same time activating EMS.

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Wrong. Calling 911 for a teenage OD brings ambulance and FD. Both of which have EMTs, who have already been using Narcan.

I'm thinking any plan would to administer Narcan while at the same time activating EMS.

Yes! Call 911.

I just don't see how these medical mandates can work on every campus in America.

Until there is enough money (which there never will be) . . . how can school districts run mini-hospital clinics without medical staff?

Again, in my state, school nursing is a part-time job that entails a decrease in hourly pay. And you are forced to train the educational or secretarial staff to do things they didn't sign up for. The grumbling has begun here in my district.

Two high schools/elementary schools 20 miles apart with 11 campuses total and one school nurse who works 3 days a week. How do you run a medical clinic with those numbers?

The truth is I spent most of my time doing hearing and vision screenings for IEP's. The school secretaries give out the meds, bandage the boo-boo-s, talk to the girls about getting their period, assess the kids for illness and call home, assess the kids for injuries on the playground, etc. Unless I just so happened to be on a certain campus at a certain time.

Obviously, this is my pet peeve about school nursing - mandates from government officials who have no idea what they are doing.

Of course my goal would be safety of the kids and yes we are faced with many challenges regarding illegal drugs and alcohol. But shouldn't the system be in place PRIOR to passing mandates?

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Specializes in Psych, Addiction.

There's even a push to make it available OTC. I believe it could save lives if it was in home medicine cabinets. There's no abuse potential, the worst side effect is withdrawal begins in patients who are addicted or dependent. The nasal spray works as long as patients are breathing-- If Plan B can be OTC, Narcan certainly should.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

It is so sad that this even needs to be a conversation. Not to make this a "back in the day" post, but...back in the day the only drug we had in school [that I am aware of] was pot, the drugs of choice for after school parties were alcohol and pot. In high school we heard an occasional story about a kid trying cocaine or acid but stuff like meth, bath salts and all the designer drugs weren't around yet. This was in the early '80's when cocaine was just starting to be a thing and being in the upper midwest it took a little while to spread to our area.

Now stories on the news about drug busts and overdoses are unfortunately too common. Heroin has made an unwelcome comeback in my community, and of course bath salts and "spice" are contributing to all sorts of problems both health and crime related. It's probably a good idea to have Narcan available in the school districts, but again it's just sad that it's necessary.

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