School forgot to give medication

It wasn’t medication for diabetes so that argument doesn’t work. The seriousness of diabetes would make it memorable. Routine antibiotics just don’t have the same effect.

It’s not that big a deal, I wouldn’t make a fuss about it in case the next time you want them to do you a favour by giving meds, they say no. It’s no something they have to do.

I wish I'd known how relaxed people were about giving medication when this was part of my role as I found it stressful. I worked quite hard to ensure the medicine was stored right, we had written consent, we kept records that it was given and set up a reminder system that worked pretty well after a few errors

Humans do make errors and any system relying on people has gaps. But it would be nice for op to know if there was a procedure and if it can be improved. Ours was improved

There should be a policy on the school website stating who is responsible for administering it and the process. So in my children's school it is the school office staff and 2 adults have to be there for it. I was often the other adult as I would take the child from class to the office and I would initial the sheet to say it had been administered. This was a large primary with a very well run school office especially when it came to medications and children's health.

When the office staff take in a form they put an alert in the calendar for the teacher whose class the child is in and it flashes up on their screen that X child is to come to the school office. This also comes with an alarm sound in case the teacher isn't looking directly at their laptop. All classrooms have smartboards and the laptops are always on. The alert also appears on the smartboard. There is often a queue of children waiting to be dosed.

With something like insulin there is usually a one to one TA with that child to monitor, even when they have a pump. They get to know the child well and can look for any behaviour which may indicate their blood sugars need checking.

If you can work it so that school don't have to administer medicines then all the better but if they do need to, look up their medicine policy.

This is why, if I was the Emperor of the Universe, I would make it the law that if you want children, you must spend a year teaching 4-11 year olds! Some days it’s like trying to stuff fog in a bag (and that’s just the admin)!

It is not the responsibility of the school to ensure antibiotics are given to a child at lunch time. Likewise, it is unreasonable to suggest a 7 year old should remind a staff member to be given their medication.

It isn’t equivalent to giving a child insulin/epi pens. They will have particular members of staff who are then trained to give these meds, or, in the case of the diabetic children I’ve taught (before CHMs and pumps), there was training & a medical health plan (still happens today reading current teacher posts). Sometimes, a parent would go to the school, take the glucose reading, calculate dose, administer & wander off to pick up later. With epi pens, they’re not all the same, so the staff member would have to be instructed on each and every brand they had to keep & possibly use at school.

There is no longer anything like a School Nurse that lurks in a broom cupboard with a camp bed and a box of plasters. Most staff multitask & are incredibly busy. What you deem to be a Very Important Thing is not what the staff would consider to be a Very Important Thing.

And that’s without the ballache if the antibiotics need refrigeration!

If you want the child to have a dose at lunchtime, the best course of action is to get someone to deliver the meds to the school at lunch, go to the office, get the staff to find the child, administer the antibiotics, and take the bottle home so that they can have their after school dose as usual.

Or give a dose at breakfast, after school, at bed time and set an alarm for a night time dose (wake, pop dose in, tuck back in to sleep). It’s only for a few days after all.

The only unreasonable one isn’t the child, or the teacher. It’s wholly the parent’s responsibility to make sure a child has their antibiotics. Or does their homework, or spellings, or reading, or toilet training or…

And that’s also why so many teachers leave the profession (and I left before there were sites like Mumsnet where parents could write a character assassination because the universe fails to revolve around their Perfect First Born).

If it help from this point forward we are often on 4 x a day antibiotics and our hospital are pretty strict that they have be spread apart - 6 hourly with a max of 1 hour difference other way off needed.

so I would usually do 9 am - 3.30 pm when I collect from school then then 9.30 pm and 3 am.

It's not much of a point. Give her the medicine and forget about it.

Did you ask the doctor whether it was possible to stretch the doses out a bit because it would be difficult to manage with school? Usually they say it's fine.

Popsicle82646, but it wasn't. Ifs and buts don't make a truth.

In my school, parents have to fill out a set of forms which need to be approved by the board of management before medication can be given out by staff. When parents are notified of this, most parents don't bother getting the forms and filling them. These parents don't like when the onus is put back on them to do some work. We never hear from them again.

You shouldn't be burdening an already stressed teacher with these requirements. Either go to the school to do it yourself, or keep your daughter at home if she is ill.

With a regular medication, there are different mechanisms in place to ensure it isn't 'forgotten'.

I would expect a 7 year old to know at what time of the school day they were supposed to have their antibiotics (i.e. before lunch, after lunch) and to know to let an adult know if they hadn't had them and I would expect their parent to have gone through that with them.

4 times a day is every 6 hours menaing you could have worked it without involving the school.
Also you could have phoned to check if it had been administered .
Please don't add extra burden on to schools unless absolutely necessary !!!

To be fair schools only administer 4 times a day antibiotics not 3 which this is

rhat said you can’t extrapolate to something such as diabetes as that kind of thing is a constant and treated differently - it is easy to forget a dose of an ad hoc medicine

i wojld just chalk it up to one of those things

Thing is if your DD reminded them at the end of the day they'd forgotten they are right to wonder why when she realised she didn't say something?

It's not blaming the child. It's asking if she reminded someone? She's 7 - old enough to remember and they are checking if she did.

I wouldn't be mad.

I would remind them the next day if she needs them but I'd remind the person responsible for administering it.

Like some pps have said you really can't compare. A one-off medication for a child for perhaps a couple of days is very different to something more serious like diabetes. If that were the case there would be one or two trained members of staff who would be checking blood sugar levels at appropriate times and calculating lunch quantities and this would most probably be in the child's EHCP - they would have their photo in the office etc.
Some schools do not administer antibiotics or other non regular medication to children - the parent or designated proxy parent would go to the school to give the meds to the child.
Having said that, if the school agreed to give it to your child and you completed relevant paperwork etc then it should have happened. But I am not surprised if it was missed, schools don't stop for a moment during the day.

Also I looked after multiple diabetic children and this wouldn't have happened with them as they were checked multiple times a day. Same with ADHD meds as it was the same children every day. I never missed any but it would have been the adhoc antibiotics that would have been more likely to be forgotten. I also had other responsibilities.

Some schools have a notification system that tells the parent when meds have been given but as for remembering it that usually comes down to the office staff if you’re at an Infant site, KS2 kids will remember and come to the office..you might have an alarm on your phone or a giant
post it note on your computer screen… but shit happens and all that can go by the wayside if the proverbial hits the fan..insulin would not be forgotten has to have levels read before and after lunch. Schools are hard placed to work really, it’s no excuse but it’s the truth…not helped by
parents I’m afraid.

Well, you’ve just explain the issue right there. It is nursing. Your school has a nurse.

Was the medication given to the office or the teacher. I used to have the job of administering medication and it was very stressful looking for multiple children at lunchtime. Have they given previous doses? I would say that whilst it is frustrating it isn't the end of the world.

A child on antibiotics is not the same as a child with a medical condition that requires life saving regular medication. Children with diabetes, children with asthma etc have medical plans. Staff have training. Special locations are stated in ehcps on where the medication is kept. Meetings take place with parents. There will be a link member of staff for the child with diabetes and times allocated for bloods etc.

your child could and should be having antibiotics at home. Do that. Do not take time away from that imaginary child with diabetes that you are focused on.

There should be a system in place that makes a new medication a simple addition to the school day. That there isn’t is ridiculous. That so many posters are saying the child doesn’t even need the medication or that the school has no responsibility is also ridiculous.

i know we are spoiled with our non-uk school, but we have a full time nurse for this task. It is one of the reasons we picked our school. It is a staff role that has been cut in so many places, but it is so important.

Does your school have a policy? Most schools have one on administering medicines.

I would have a quick look of they followed thier own policy and where it fell down?

It might be they need a little training or update their policy, as going against the grain here, if they say they can do it, it's probably better if they do.

Eg my chikdrens school, the parent has to phone the office to remind them at the right time. I worked in a school that had a reminder app on the computer, which would ring. They also say antibiotics generally can be given before school, at pick up and bedtime so won't always need to be at school.