Asthma And Eczema Policies

[Guest]

I work in a Foundation Unit (3-5 yrs), represent the non teaching staff as a governor and also have a child within the setting. I am getting a little frustrated as I can not seem to kick start anyone to write an asthma and eczema policy. It is on the ‘to do’ list but since more children are being admitted with these complaints, I would feel that as a mum and nursery nurse it would promote good practice and give staff and parents more confidence, especially with the staff who are dealing with children.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or any examples that I could put under their noses?

Their was some talk about contacting the school nurse but the pre-school children come under the health visitors…so please help it is driving me crackers!

[Helen]

Hi Jackie,

I think the first move is to look at the other policies of the setting relating to health. Could you add a paragraph or two about eczema and asthma issues to already-existing policies? Why do you feel a separate one is necessary? Is your main concern about the staff feeling confident to deal with an asthma attack? Finally, (sorry about all these questions!) do you have a medical information form that parents/carers are required to complete before starting at the setting, and is this information transferred onto a list that all staff can easily access, eg in the first aid kit?

Hope all this might help in clarifying your best way forward

[Guest]

At the minute there is nothing written down about these, either as part of another or free standing. I personally feel that staff are not aware of who has these problems or how to deal with them. Bad news really since I also work there!

The thought of it being free standing was that it would stick in minds more and make people aware of it.

On admission into the setting parents/carers are asked if their child has any..... It is often on a parental side that an inhaler is brought in. Do the staff have training? Is there a designated person(s) to deal with them? Not that I am aware of. We had a emergency first aid INSET today which did give me the chance to have a quick word with the instructor, who did talk about it e.g. sit children on a chair with the chin in their hands and elbows on the table after using their inhaler, so that it gives them chance to calm down and get their breath back. This was a start I guess.

[Guest]

At the minute there is nothing written down about these, either as part of another or free standing. I personally feel that staff are not aware of who has these problems or how to deal with them. Bad news really since I also work there!

The thought of it being free standing was that it would stick in minds more and make people aware of it.

On admission into the setting parents/carers are asked if their child has any..... It is often on a parental side that an inhaler is brought in. Do the staff have training? Is there a designated person(s) to deal with them? Not that I am aware of. We had a emergency first aid INSET today which did give me the chance to have a quick word with the instructor, who did talk about it e.g. sit children on a chair with the chin in their hands and elbows on the table after using their inhaler, so that it gives them chance to calm down and get their breath back. This was a start I guess.

[AnonyMouse_75]

I think with the increase of asthma and eczema its important to feel confident in the work place that you know how to deal with these conditions.

I know you want a policy but maybe an information sheet would be useful reference tool?

 

as part of a module at college I was asked to produce a booklet on Eczema to be used in the work place and I found there where several key questions-

 

-what do exsisting policies in the setting say? I found that by talking to the staff and finding out what was already in place I could look at what needed adding

-what signs symptons would the staff need to be aware of? and

-what treatment and medication would they need to learn to use?

I was able to talk to a few parents of children with eczema and ask them what else do we need to be aware of? I found this a valuable excersise and a good starting point to devising a detailed booklet about managing eczema. After producing the ezcema booklet Im now moving on to looking at asthma as we have a few children in the group who suffer with it.

 

the information booklet idea is proving more user friendly and accessible than an policy

 

overall I found the information parents suplied was the most relivant there is alot of general information on the net but its good to talk to people who have the first hand experience too.

[Guest Joan]

Don't know if this is too far down the year for info - but I've been struggling with an asthma policy and found the National Astma Campaign site excellent for help

www.asthma.org.uk/about/resources.php