HOME › Forums › Camp Health › Medications
Tagged: Medication
- This topic has 5 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 4 months ago by
Tracey Gaslin.
-
AuthorPosts
-
August 8, 2022 at 5:39 pm #45575
Lisa Keeler
ParticipantWe are a generalized residential camp- not medically specialized- with 1-2 nurses for 130ish campers. Each session we have had one or two campers arrive with a VERY large number of medications and supplements with detailed medication regimens (meds up to 5x day) that can be extremely taxing for the healthcare team, and the child. It can be to treat PANS/PANDA, reported environmental exposures, or behavioral concerns, to name a few. Has anyone encountered this? How do you handle it? Would there be a time when it would be safer to say that the camp is not equipped to handle this? THanks!
August 11, 2022 at 8:09 pm #45590Julie Estes
ParticipantHey 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!!
– CamdenAugust 31, 2022 at 2:15 pm #45648Megan Quinlan
ParticipantThat’s an interesting thought that Camden had. I work at Lisa’s partner camp and we do our own blister packs, which can be tedious and time-consuming, but I’m always worried about potential errors there, especially when we are in a rush to get them done after change and before dinner. Maybe we need to switch to having a pharmacy do them? I was told it’s expensive to do it that way. We also need to talk about EHR with EMAR this year, I think. We should talk this year.
September 1, 2022 at 5:22 pm #45649Carrie Smith
ParticipantHi Lisa,
We are also in the process of trying to implement a policy for pharmacy pre-packaged medications. We have run into the issues that Camden expressed – parents unable to get controlled medications pre-packaged due to insurance constraints on timing and fees. If anyone has more advice to share on this issue, I’d love to hear how you’ve handled this with parents, specifically any verbiage you use in your communications with families.There are pharmacies such as PackMyRx and CampMeds who specialize in this – does anyone have experience working with companies like this and/or feedback?
Thank you!
CarrieOctober 10, 2022 at 9:42 pm #46040Anonymous
InactiveI am very new to camp nursing directorship, but medication administration is one of my top three changes we will be making for 2023. Several of the camps I interviewed for processes did not administer oils, herbals, vitamins without a physician order. Two camps had great verbiage on their websites to explain… “due to very large number of medications administered daily at camp, we are unable to administer essentials oils, supplements, and herbal remedies without a physician’s order.
“All Non-FDA approved medications, which include most vitamins, oils, and dietary supplements, will only be accepted and administered to your camper if accompanied by an order that is signed by a licensed provider (MD, DO, NP or PA). This order must instruct us on when and how much to give. This is to ensure the safety of your camper and to comply with the Nurse Practice Act.” SkyRanch website
Some of our local camps are just blister packing their narcotics. Another camp decided not to blister pack because they felt not all parents would comply, or would have barriers, so the nurses would still be doing two med admin processes. There is tons of discussion on this very topic with all 8 camps I surveyed as I was trying to find a good, different process from what we were doing.
CandiOctober 10, 2022 at 10:44 pm #46045Tracey Gaslin
MemberGreat conversation here friends. Medication management has always been one of the top challenges for camp healthcare providers across the US. The juxtaposition is that licensed healthcare providers must follow the legal requirements in their state to administer medications which usually includes being able to check the five rights (person, drug, dose, route, time) with medication administration. If using a pre-packaging company that knows this, they provide the five rights on the blister pak or other packaging mechanism – this is pharmacy law and requirement. Parents, as a general rule, don’t know this information and often are perplexed that we don’t “trust them”. This is a key educational piece to share with families and campers as part of your application process.
Candi is correct in that camps most likely do not administer any herbals, homeopathics, or other substances where they do not have the five rights provided.
Keep up the good work!
Tracey -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.