To worry about allergic reactions in schools

[PinkBottledWater]

I work in a school where I am the lowest paid, know the children the least but highly likely to be first on the scene if a child suffered an allergic reaction.

I work over lunchtimes only in a large playground.
I asked to see where the epipens were kept, and have had training.

When I asked to see where they were, I was told by the manager ‘don’t worry, someone else will deal with it - if anything like that happens’.
Except yesterday I was on duty while the teaching staff were all in a meeting. This happens frequently.

I often feel that me - as least qualified - would be first to deal with an emergency situation, and would be the most accountable in the way that I respond to that situation.

It scares me and I think there needs to be a better way.

In an emergency situation like that it would be entirely acceptable for someone to interrupt the meeting.

Does your school have any walkie talkies for staff on duty so that you can call for help in an emergency? Or would you be allowed your mobile in your pocket so you could call for help.

As long as there are plenty of other people in the school that have the relevant training, it isn’t needed by everyone.

Are you concerned about an individual child who has allergies or that a new reaction might happen?

Trust that the school know the requirements and procedures better than you do and if it were necessary, you would have training.

If it makes you feel better, watch a training video on YouTube.

Reading about the poor boy currently in the news, it sounded like the TA was first on the scene and dealing with most of the crisis. It was reported that she had not seen the boy’s management plan.

This is what worries me.

I work at lunchtime in a First school and don't have training with the EpiPen - we have 3 paediatric trained staff members in school, plus numerous other first aid trained staff. Most schools don't train all staff on how to use them. How many children in school do you have that are known to require an EpiPen? My school is small, and I think there's 3 children. Are you outside all the time, with all different year groups? Do you have a whistle? You're surely not outside on your own with the entire school?! Or even part of the school?! Does the school have an emergency pattern with the whistle? Do you have a red card with you? Send a child into school with the red card, to give to a staff member - it means emergency come now! Even if all staff members were in a meeting, you can send a child to interrupt if there's an emergency. The likelihood of you needing to use an emergency plan is probably small, but there should be one in place, regardless of what the emergency might be.

@Sassybooklover

No, a lot of what you describe there is not in place. Yesterday I was out with about 80 children aged 2 to 4 and only 3 lunchtime staff and one TA. The rest of the staff were in a ‘goodbye’ meeting and although presumably not far away, I didn’t know exactly where they were or what to do in an emergency.

Surely if there is an issue you look directly at the most calm responsible student and say "You must walk to head teacher/head of year and tell them Miss PinkBottleWater needs assistance with (insert child name here) in the playground." Then you get your own phone and call an ambulance. You can ask the child's friends if the child has an allergy.
Do you have first aid training? If not it's worth doing. Mine covered epi pens. I haven't had to use it but DS friend has an allergy so I felt more confident taking care of him.

As the mother of a child with a serious nut allergy this scares me a lot. You don’t have a lot of time. The whole point of having an EpiPen is so that treatment can be given immediately, to buy you time to get to hospital before you die - not to waste time walking to a meeting that has to be interrupted, then hunted down 1 of only 3 trained staff and gone to the school office to the EpiPens. While this fucking about takes place my child could die. My child will have his EpiPens with him at all times. I have a training pen and will be making sure his class teacher and TA know how to use it.

The child who has been in the press recently was walked outside by an untrained member of staff instead of being immediately laid down. This likely contributed to his death.

I’m also an ex teacher. I don’t see any reason not to do whole school training. Lie the child down. Administer EpiPen. Call 999. Training takes 10 minutes.

Unless the TA taught in the same class as this child, it's unlikely they'd have known what the management plan is. I don't think it's possible for every staff member to know the management plan of every child that has one, especially in a big school. Those teaching the child who has a management plan, should know what's in place and what to do. As a lunchtime person, you can't know every management plan, that again would be impossible in a large school. I work in a small school, and I'm told who has allergies, and I make sure I know who the child is. In the case of an emergency I would use our emergency procedures.

Yanbu. Everyone should have training. And the EpiPens should be near the child at all times.
Every second counts

💯

I'd be asking them to review their policy. My daughters epi pens were always collected by a lunchtime supervisor from the classroom. All medication like that was kept in a large bag on the lunch lady. It followed my daughter from dining hall to playground. A couple of children with inhalers had the same treatment.

80 toddlers/preschoolers but only 4 staff? I thought the 2yos needed 1:4 (1:5 now?) Ratio.

(Apologies if this isn't UK....)

I'd be a lot more worried about other injuries and asthma simply because there isn't enough staff to supervise adequately

Yes, it's essential that this is the process

There's a good petition about this at the moment . Started by the parents of Benedict Blythe who died at school

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/728067?fbclid=IwY2xjawLTBoxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHtRp6x3jJABL8Zr_PNrcQDz5xXqSSt75N9XMn6x3pDmctU4P_V_E7LV02VnF_aem_KxjTsPeEkJAkLPscT4j70A

Every member of school staff deserves proper training and every school should have proper and well informed processes. It would not only protect the children, it would also protect the staff

I find this odd. I work in a boarding school with a large spread out site, which makes a difference. But all teachers, support staff, matrons, catering team have basic 1 day first aid training - which included how to administer an auto-injector. I also know the locations of then around the school. (Not sure about business staff).

Auto-injectors aren’t tricky, they have instructions on the outside, but basically, remove cap, press firmly to leg (maybe with a button), rub skin afterwards and call ambulance.

Exactly. It took me about 3 minutes to do the training with my children to the point they could competently use the trainer pen

(We also now practice on oranges with expired pens)

Yanbu. You need to know where that epi-pen kit is so you can use it the moment a child starts feeling faint, coughing, itching, swelling or being sick.
You cannot use an epi-pen a moment too soon.

Speak to your management today and be a total pain in the arse until they sort it, today.

I am curious to hear from those who voted yabu- why?

I expect they think an epi-pen is like a plaster or damp paper towel.

It's not. It's up there with a defibrillator. I think a defib AND epi-pen are sometimes needed actually.

Kindly meant - it is not appropriate at all for you to be making any decisions at all in an emergency.

You have been told not to worry about this.

If an emergency arises your sole responsibility is to communicate to someone with more seniority, accountability and training than you that an emergency is happening. Don’t worry about where the epipens are. Do make sure that there exists a quick way of raising the alarm if needed.

You seem to be catastrophe-fantasising a very unlikely situation. Whilst a lot of kids have allergies, most allergies aren't fatal and the chances of a near-fatal incident happening among the 80 kids you are supervising during any short time when more senior staff aren't around is too small to calculate. Focusing on unlikely catastrophic scenarios isn't healthy.

expert I hope you are never anywhere near children or people who might become ill when you are at work. You are talking complete rubbish. How do you manage your child's severe allergies and epi-pen out of interest?

Knowledge of how to use an EpiPen is easy to get.Try you tube. They are very easy to administer.
Are there specific children in school with EpiPens? You should be aware of who they are -ask if you don’t.

Every member of staff in a school should have EpiPen training and know where they are kept - allergic reactions can happen very quickly and every second counts. It doesn’t matter who gives the EpiPen if it was needed. I would push back on this especially if you are supervising lunch, or after lunch.

If anything happened like this, you would stay with the child having an allergic reaction and send a child or other member staff to the front office or first aid room. Then another member of staff would come out with an EpiPen and whichever one of you who felt more confident would administer it. It is extremely rare for someone to have a severe allergic reaction and you can interrupt any meeting to get the necessary help.

Deaths from food induced anaphylaxis in schools are extremely rare, less than 1 every 2 years in the UK.

This is a very sad story and it is clear that the parents believe the school should have acted differently. My reading of the reported facts is that the staff did know where the epipen was and were following the guidance to check for other symptoms and watch, if vomiting is the only sign and there is no reason to suspect an allergen has been consumed.

In this case, the guidance was not correct but based on the information available at the time, the school staff did not act incorrectly.