AFCampNurse

Thanks for your responses, sirI and Suzanne4. We thought that the PA Board of Pharmacy would be helpful too, but, like the PA State Board of Nursing, their pat answer seems to be "read the practice act". Well, we have read them and while they are incredibly specific about some things (like what exactly constitutes sexual harassment), they are woefully vague in spelling out the difference between "administering" and "dispensing". Has anyone else in ever had a problem with dispensing meds? Sharon

I am an RN working at a large University student health center. My employer wants us staff nurses to rotate through a "medication dispensing nurse" position. This nurse will work in a room filled with stock meds, dispensing them to students who have been given prescriptions from our providers (MDs, CRNPs, and PAs). We will be responsible for ordering, inventorying, storing, and dispensing multiple doses of medications. It sounds like a job for a pharmacist to us but our employer refuses to hire a pharmacist because "it would cost too much money." We think this is outside the scope of practice of an RN. We feel that the PA nurse practice act says that nurses administer single doses of meds, not dispense multiple doses of medications. However, our employer is adamant that this is within our scope of practice because they are directing us to do it and they will write a policy to "cover us". We have been resisting this for 9 months but time is running out. The PA State board of nursing has not been helpful. They will not help us to interpret the nurse practice act. What do you think? Can RNs legally dispense multiple doses of meds?

Hi Angie, I'm willing to share if you are! I have a 3 page word document of everything that we have in our stock meds cabinet. I developed this as a checklist for parental permission for OTCs during the summer last year. Send me a PM an I'll email it to you. Sharon

Wendy79, I would love for this to be not my problem :) but the protocols that we currently have are not reflective of the care we give. Our stock meds cabinet is stuffed with OTCs that we have no standing orders for. The family medicine practice that we have worked with is NOT interested in any "extra" work, nor do they want to be bothered by camp nurses calling and asking, for example, if it's okay to give a camper with menstrual cramps motrin. They will sign anything reasonable we put in front of them. To complicate matters, we would like to change docs (for a few reasons) but aren't having any luck finding a suitable replacement. We feel that a new practice would be "disinclined" to write a ton of standing orders for us right off the bat. I certainly wish that this wasn't a nursing role but 3 years of camp experience tells me that if I don't do it, it's not going to get done.

Nope, I'm still looking.

Where do you all get your treatment protocols? I will be starting my 3rd year as a camp nurse next week at a terrific performing and fine arts camp for teens in southern NJ and I would like to replace our outdated treatment protocols/standing orders. Can anyone direct me to a good source? I would love to find a website from which I can download protocols for everything from the use of acetaminophen for headaches to use of epi-pens for anaphylaxis. Thanks!