Nurserys and Epipens

[bluebear]

Our son has been given a couple of epipens for a severe allergic reaction. He usually goes to a private (i.e. not school) nursery a few days a week, but they have refused to let him attend until I have arranged some kind of tutoring session for all of their staff with a health professional to teach them how to use the epipen.

Are all nurseries like this?

I assumed that with so many children with allergies, that nurseries would have this training as part of the First Aid cover - in fact one of the nursery staff told me that she had been on a recent training course that covered epipen use but she would be 'too scared to use one' (and she's the 'Head of the room')

Sadly its not unusual to find people who are terrified of using an epipen - there was one on my daughter's last school trip although we didn't find that out until a few minutes before she left . Usually this improves with training. Try to be there for the training if you can as sometimes the trainers can be OTT. Our school nurse terrfied me talking about the length of the needle as if it was massive - it isn't.

Were you given a trainer pen - I find mine invaluable? We got one from the school nurse and one from the anaphylaxis campaign but maybe your hv could get you one as she sounds like a treasure Also the anaphylaxis campaign will sometimes have a local volunteer who will come with you to talk to the nursery and help you train them. Keep your epipens when they are out of date and use them to demonstrate with an old orange or apple (safely disposed of afterwards of course).

The anaphylaxis campaign produced a very good video. Don't know what training you had but it was better than the training we got. However the guidance on using the pen is changing and I don't know if the video is available as it had to be updated. Insurers sometimes (always?) require staff to be trained before they are protected against misuse.

Thanks Tatt. We haven't been given any training, just told to 'read the instructions' by the GP.
The pharmacist told us to try to contact the manufacturers and ask for a dummy pen.

At the moment we are hoping that the HV will persuade a school nurse to tutor at the nursery - but I'll give the anaphylaxis campaign a ring to see if they still have the video or an updated one..

bluebear you may want to download a copy of the government advice for providers about handling medical needs. Its not available via the dfes site but you can get it here

www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidanceArticle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4108489&chk=nFVE2/

Paragraphs 77, 133 and Chapter 5 182 on especially useful. Its the employers responsibility to ensure staff are properly trained and early year training should now cover this. If you want your child back there Disbaility legislation may apply to those with severe allergies but I don't think anyone has yet tested it - the threat does scare most places into being more amenable though despite that I've always found it easier just to contact someone (like a school nurse) and arrange the training myself.

Been checking it out myself for the comments on minimising rsik for allergic children..... I am still fuming though the daughter has her own biscuits today.

Ds was issued with his via the paed at hospital but it was a Community Nurse who talked me through how to use it. She said for me to contact her if other family members or childcare providers needed any training and that she or one of her team would go and visit them in-situ. She said they regularly go to schools, nurseries etc. Maybe you could contact the Community Nurse at your nearest children's outpatients.