Schools allow students to carry life-saving medication

Students with severe, life-threatening allergies will now be allowed to bring their medications to school with them and self administer them if there is an emergency.

Thanks to a new state law that was recently enacted in St. Charles Parish, students who require metered dose inhalers for asthma or epinephrine auto injectors, commonly referred to as EpiPens, for severe allergic reactions will be allowed to carry them on their person instead of leaving them in the school office.

Students with asthma inhalers have been allowed to carry them in the past, but EpiPens were often not allowed out of the office.

But even with the new law, school nurses will still have the final say.

Darla ReBowe, nurse coordinator for the school district, says that while this new rule will protect students, nurses will still be the ones to determine whether or not students are ready to self-administer medications.

“Only those medical conditions which require immediate access to medication to prevent a life-threatening or potentially debilitating situation (will) be considered for self administration for medication,” ReBowe said.

The nurse will assess the situation to decide if the student is mature enough and if the student knows how to use the medication properly.

“We don’t ever assume, as school nurses, that the students know how to properly administer their medication,” she said.
In order for the self administering and carrying of medications to be considered, ReBowe said that a doctor’s prescription must be filed with a parental permission. Also, the directions on the medication label must match the doctor’s prescription directions perfectly.

“We have to make sure that there is no doubt as to how to administer that medication for the safety of the child in case an adult who’s not a nurse has to do it,” she said.
Overall, ReBowe thinks that this new law will lead to a safer school environment for all children.

“I think it’s a good thing because a lot of students did not have their medication readily available in case of an emergency,” she said. “Even though the school does employ (registered nurses), RNs are not on every campus at all times so students…may have something like exercise induced asthma. If they do have a reaction, they’ll have their medication.”