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Medication Administration Practices of School Nurses
Author(s) -
McCarthy Ann Marie,
Kelly Michael W.,
Reed David
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2000.tb07277.x
Subject(s) - administration (probate law) , school nurse , nursing , school nursing , psychology , medical education , medicine , family medicine , political science , law
This study assessed the medication administration practices of school nurses. From a random sample of 1,000 members of the National Association of School Nurses, 649 (64.9%) completed the survey developed for the study. These school nurses report that during a typical day, 5.6% of children receive medication in school, with 3.3% receiving medications for ADHD. Almost all the school nurses follow written guidelines for administering medication. Potential problems were identified in documenting side effects of medications, storage of medications, student self‐administration practices, and appropriate authorization of nonprescription drug use. Most nurses (75.6%) delegate medication administration to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP), with secretaries (66.2%) the most common UAP. Discomfort with delegation and confusion over state nurse practice laws were noted. Errors in administering medications were reported by 48.5% of the school nurses, with missed dose (79.7%) the most common error. Factors identified as contributing to errors included use of UAP and responsibility for large numbers of students.