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Hey Lisa!
I am a camp nurse, also at a generalized camp (not medically specialized) where camper’s attend for a week at a time. This summer, we rolled out a new protocol to have camper’s medications packaged in blister packs (also known as – bubble packs, pill packs, medication cards, etc.). These blister packs are packaged by a pharmacist prior to the camper’s arrival at camp, not by unlicensed personnel. Parents will contact their camper’s pediatrician and have the medications called in to a pharmacy. The pharmacies we as a camp have partnered with charge between $5-$20 for a blister pack. Having medications blister packed by a pharmacist allows for additional safety checks to make sure we have all of the “rights” of medication administration. We have parents/guardians turn in their camper’s blister packs at check-in.
One of the main reasons we have started utilizing blister packs is due to the enormous amount of medications turned in for a week of camp. In the past, parents have handed me a ziplock bag of pills/supplements/who-knows-what to give daily to their camper. This is not only unsafe, but can be overwhelming since we have over 300 campers attend camp per week.
For blister packs, we have found that small, local pharmacies are more accommodating in general. Blister packs are great because they have a camper’s medication correctly dosed out for specific times during the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime). Many parents don’t want to go through the “trouble” of having -for example – their camper’s flintstone MV blister-packed, so they will just have their camper skip it for the week of camp. This cuts down on the overall amount of medications me and my health team are administering weekly.
Some issues we have come across this summer during our pilot year of this new policy: Some parents have trouble getting adhd medications blister packed due to one month supplies or insurance difficulties. If parents know about the policy in plenty of time before their camper attends camp, they can have their camper’s one month supply of medication called in by their doctor to their pharmacy in a blister pack instead of a bottle. After the camper’s week at camp, we return the blister pack with the unused medication.
Another “issue” parents may have is if their camper is on an antibiotic that was prescribed a day or two prior to their session of camp starting. My camp has chosen to accept any newly prescribed medications not blister packed. Since this is a rare case (maybe 1-5 campers/week), the health team will utilize our own medication boxes (medication calendars) to package medications, which we label with the camper’s name.
Hope this helps!!
– Camden