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  • #44872
    Katie Hilton
    Participant

    Hello!

    I’m relatively new to camp nursing and have just experienced the medication process for my first weekend camp, to say it gave me the shivers is an understatement!

    We have a very time consuming process of checking in each family at the bus and checking each medication individually with the family. It was a nightmare process with partly worn medication labels, parents telling us medications were different dose to on the label etc.

    I’m now starting to look instead at an alternative process for the summer camps and am considering bubble packs with the pre-requisite it has the pack has to come directly from the pharmacist to our offices two weeks prior to the camp.

    Is there anything preventing us from using bubble packs? Is this an approved method of collecting and then administering medications for our camp nursing team?

    #44889
    Aja Hutchins
    Member

    Hi Katie!
    It is totally approved, and can make things a lot easier. Especially in case you wind up having to delegate medicines for a trip or something. We currently use PackMyRx for all of our campers who have prescribed medications. Enrollment in a service like this can be tedious and expensive for parents. So, it kind of depends on your camper population and what your leadership will agree to. I am thinking next year we will actually move away from a formal, required service and instead do something like what you are thinking. Tell the parents they must get us the medication in appropriately labeled blister packs, using their pharmacy of choice.
    If you go to the resources section of ACH website there is a medication administration section. All of that info can be really helpful in talking with parents and administrators about what is needed for meds to be given at camp. Good luck… please update on how it goes!

    #44891
    Katie Hilton
    Participant

    Perfect thank you, what do you then do with any additional not prescribed medications i.e vitamins. Do you just get the parents to bring those separately?

    #44897

    Katie,
    We also use a pre-packaged med service (Campmeds).
    We define medicines to include vitamins, homeopathic, or supplements.
    In Maine nurses cannot administer anything without a provider’s note, even over-the-counters.
    Our standing orders include the OTC’s we use on PRN basis but if a parent wants us to give a med daily, we need a provider note.
    Most of my emails before camp end with (Nurses do not accept medication on opening day). Not that parents read anything….

    #44966
    Kayli Moody
    Member

    We tend to have difficulty with people using PackMyRx for some insurance companies, parents say their insurance won’t cover the service or certain out of state medications. I wish parents would send meds ahead of time and we didn’t have to deal with that on opening day when we are trying to check in 300+ campers. (Dinner and HS meds are always a nightmare that day).

    #44983

    Hello Friends:

    The lovely medication management saga continues. You all have addressed most of the issues in making these decisions:
    1. Some insurances won’t pay for a pre-packaged service
    2. Parents forget or delay the process as they don’t think about camp until 48 hours beforehand
    3. There are nuances like vitamins, supplements, and homeopathics (depending on what your camp calls a med)

    We encourage you to have a good medication management policy. Outline what is acceptable/not acceptable at your camp and share that information early and often with parents and families. All states require that nurses have a prescriber order for any medications – prescription or OTC. Nurses do not have scope of practice in the US to make decisions regarding medication intervention. The same rules that apply in a hospital setting in your state apply to a camp setting in your state. This is often overlooked and individuals fail to realize the potential repercussions of these decisions.

    There is not a right or wrong answer here, but what I most often here is that there is no one way to do medication management. Even if you use a pre-packaged service, you will still have outliers that you might need to accomodate or work with to get those children to camp. Often, those are the children who need camp the most.

    Best to you all
    Tracey Gaslin

    #45054
    Mary Marugg
    Member

    Such good conversation! Not specifically for bubble packs, but just the most common questions that the ACH office receives about medications, the Medication FAQ document was just updated by Linda Erceg, RN PHN (previous ACN Executive Director) The link is on the ACH website:

    https://allianceforcamphealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Med_Mngmt_FAQ2022.pdf

    Best,

    Mary Marugg

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