Reply To: Brand new to day camp nursing + disorganized health center

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#42582
Lynne Rodrigues
Participant

Hello Tara!

My name is Lynne Rodrigues. I am a Pennsylvania school and camp nurse. If your camp is indeed located in the state of Pennsylvania, our state has strict guidelines for the administration of medications. Indeed, Pennsylvania is one of the more restrictive states in the country. As a nurse, you must have signed orders from a doctor in order to administer ANY medication including over-the-counter medications. You must even have a separate order directly from a physician for prescription medications. You cannot use the bottle alone as an order. Medications must always come in their original, labeled bottles or packages. Tablet and capsules in a baggie are not acceptable. You could get around this standing order issue if every parent submitted a physician’s health form with whatever medications the doctor agrees to have administered for the patient listed and signed off on. This would mean you would need to double check every campers orders to be sure the doctor ordered them to have medication X. As a nurse, we cannot take directives from solely from parents for the administration of medications. Clearly, we do still need parental consent to administer medications. In the state of PA, nurses must have both parental consent and a doctor’s order.

As for an epinephrine autoinjectors, I believe they are important to have on hand for the unknown anaphylactic reaction. That being said, if your director is unwilling to include them in the plans for camp you may not have a choice. Hopefully, camp has quick, easy access to 911 for any possible anaphylactic emergency. Maybe your camp director could discuss some of these concerns with their insurer. The camp insurance policies may have direction for these situations.

Please feel free to reach out to me with any additional questions. I will do my best to help.

Sincerely,
Lynne Rodrigues