To expect school to administer prescribed medication

[Heather1425]

My son is in Y4 at school, he has been prescribed antibiotic eye drops 4 times a day however the school have said they will not administer them and I have to come in but working full time 45 minutes away is impossible. Last year a similar incident happened where he was on oral antibiotics and because they were 3 times a day they said they don't give children them because they can have it once before school, once after and once before bed but when they go to out of school club until 6 then in bed at 7 this isnt exactly what a dr means by 3 times a day! Is it unreasable to expect a school to aid in keeping children well when they expect them to go in if they can?

DS's school will administer medications (including eye drops) once they have the prescription. That is fairly standard around here, but if the child refuses the medication obviously the parents need to come up with another option.

Wow. My DC go to a private school where there are 4 FT nurses on staff for just under 1000 students and staff/faculty. They have cabinets full of epipens, allergy meds, routine OTC meds etc. They're all ex-hospital nurses. They WILL administer or help administer drugs that are required routinely (eg anti-seizure drugs) but they absolutely will NOT administer antibiotics. If a child is on anti-b's, child stays at home even if they're not "sick" sick. As a consequence, around my parts, doctors routinely DON'T prescribe antibiotics (also for antibiotic resistance reasons) and if they do, they do so on a twice-per-day schedule.

It wouldn't occur to me to expect a school nurse to do my job for me.

So children possibly miss weeks of school because no one will give them necessary antibiotics? How is that not considered discrimination?

i should rephrase that.

in a scenario where a doctor has deemed antibiotics necessary and prescribed antibiotics, students are being denied the opportunity to attend school because schools do not administer antibiotics. How is that not discrimination?

When was there a nurse in every school?!

I remember a "school nurse" (90s kid) but all she seemed to do was put wet paper towels on grazed knees so it's entirely possible that she was actually an admin staff member!

I started school in 1981 and the only nurse we had was the visiting ‘nit’ nurse and someone who came to measure heights and weights, there was no school nurse based at school.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/306952/Statutory_guidance_on_supporting_pupils_at_school_with_medical_conditions.pdf

The school's medicine policy is what you should look at first; however, they should be supporting children in school with medical conditions, this is the statutory guidance (I think it's the recent one but might want to check). I was a school governor and had to persuade my head of school to change their policy on this to comply with statutory guidance. They were between a rock and a hard place though as most of the staff refused.

"in a scenario where a doctor has deemed antibiotics necessary and prescribed antibiotics, students are being denied the opportunity to attend school because schools do not administer antibiotics. How is that not discrimination?"

They are not being denied the opportunity to attend school and discrimination only occurs if a law relating to discrimination has been broken. The majority of antibiotics can be given in out of school hours including a late evening dose if necessary. 4 times a day antibiotics for months is very unusual.

Is this for an eye infection? If so, 3 times a day should be fine. I only know this because I have a dog, who has had a lot of eye infections, often with eye ulcers and prescribed chloramphenicol. I spoke to one vet as I noticed one prescribed 4 times a day, others twice. The vet explained they were prescribing twice daily as I also needed to use another drop after for the eye ulcer. The infection always goes. I’d just do it for a couple of days longer to be sure.

I would not have wanted my child to be given eye drops by anyone other than a family member! I would have checked with the pharmacist about dose spacing when you collected it.

Unfortunately in my child’s case this would have meant one of us giving up work - she has them 2 hourly long term. Would you still feel the same - that you only wanted a family member to give them?

Snap it was in high school, I can't remember exactly but I doubt she worked 5 days a week 9-5 though.

poor lad only having an hour to chill before bed. keep him up longer, teachers have enough to do.

I happily did eye drops/ointment for other people's teenagers - although most just wanted help to do it themselves.

No way would I be pinning down an uncooperative 6 year old, though. Had enough of that with my own two - the closed lid thing only works if they decide they are going to let you do it in the first place and then don't spin over and start rubbing their face into the bed or with their sleeves (and I wouldn't exactly be able to hold somebody else's child by the wrists to stop them).

Kids that might die or/and have a healthcare plan, no problem taking whatever steps are necessary. Somebody who might complain I hurt their child or was too firm with them? Nah.