Giving Injections In Nursery

[AnonyMouse_7172]

I'm after advice / opinions

 

One of our children has been diagnosed with a medical condition which may (and it is a small may) result in a medical crisis needing the administration of cortisone via an intramuscular injection. The injection is not like a epipen - it is a 'proper' needle and syringe situation. My questions are: would nursery staff be allowed to give this injection (assuming that we can get training)? Its a new one on me ... I want to be able to include the child but don't want a situation where we can't look after them appropriately.

 

I am meeting the family tomorrow to discuss this - I just wanted to know where we stood

 

Thanks in anticipation

 

pw x

[Guest]

Hi

We had to tube feed a child that attended and had to talk to our insurance company about it. Then we received training from mum (as no nurses would come out and do it!). It was me that was made responsible wth another 2 as back up. I was happy to do it so long as I had the training and insurance to cover me and all the permissions paperwork etc.

[AnonyMouse_19135]

We give injections to a child 3 times a week and once done a couple of times it has become second nature and both the child and his peers are now used to it. We did have a nurse who came out and trained the staff although myself and the child's key person are the ones who generally do the injections. We've done a risk assessment and have a very in depth personalised care plan which the hospital did with the parents

[AnonyMouse_7172]

Thankyou so far! ... could staff be 'directed' to have the training? i.e. is it a reasonable part of a Nursery Assistant's job role? Could staff refuse?

[AnonyMouse_8466]

As I understand it you can't compel staff to carry out this kind of task if they really don't feel comfortable in doing it. That said, I guess it depends on what their job description says specifically. You might want to check with your Local Authority, NDNA/PLA if your'e a member and ACAS who will be able to provide general employment contract support.

[AnonyMouse_7172]

Mmm, its a tricky one. Our job descriptions are all about the teaching and learnng aspects with 'welfare' of the children being a broad brush statement. This is a can of very wriggly worms!

 

pw

[AnonyMouse_8282]

Thankyou so far! ... could staff be 'directed' to have the training? i.e. is it a reasonable part of a Nursery Assistant's job role? Could staff refuse?

 

Personally, for me job discription or not, I would not expect an 'nursery asssisant' level staff member to undergo the training unless they were 100% happy/confident to do so.

I would expect one of the senior staff manager/deputy to do so though.

[AnonyMouse_30128]

we had a child with a stoma bag some time ago ...his keyworker was very unsure she would be able to cope but after a fantastic training session with the stoma nurse we were both happy to do it...if she had not been i would have done it instead. There always need to be at least two of you trained incase one is off and also it helps to have two of you to remember what to do ! the first few times we did it together to support each other . But my daughter works for the borough with sen children and she says that you must make sure your staff are happy to administer(you cannot force them) and obviously you need to ascertain if they are happy BEFORE you admit the child...the nurse will also only sign this off for you if she is happy you are confident to do it. :1b

[AnonyMouse_7172]

Thankyou all - this is a child we already have with us who has developed the condition so it is not a case of not starting the child before we have the training. I would expect that some of our staff would be happy to do the training but some of them have definitely said they are not happy and would feel very worried.

[AnonyMouse_21338]

i would open the training up to all the staff - and if after receiving the training some of the staff are not confident to give the injection, then i would not expect them to do so. as already mentioned i would suggest that at least 2 staff members would be able to do it.

I think its a good idea for all staff to attend the training tho -as the nurse may also give a better insight into the signs and symptoms to look out for during the medical crisis - then all staff would know, also how to treat the child as the crisis is happening -before the injection is administered. Also it would probably be beneficial to know how the child reacts during or after the injection, and side effects of it etc -they are then able to reassure the child and the other children around them -it would give the staff an 'air' of confidence and calm which would (hopefully) reflect onto the child / children.

[Guest]

May I add, our insurance company said they would NOT accept a parent as a 'trainer'. We had to organise a nurse from the local surgery to do training for all of us. Actually, mum was present aswell and the nurse wrote us all a 'certificate' on our headed note paper that she had trained us in the procedure. We then sent this to insurance company and PLA before we could accept child.

[AnonyMouse_2127]

Do i have to inform my insurance company if i have a child that has a peanut allergy and carries an epipen?

 

Sue J

[AnonyMouse_11396]

Yes definitely. Our insurers required a letter from the child's GP as well as a detailed consent form from the parents for us to administer. We also had to evidence that we had received training from a health professional, including the named practitioners that were to administer if needed to. Although it has been a little while since we had a child with one, we were also told at that time it is essential that practitioners are trained for each individual child you may have. Hope this helps.

[Guest]

The child we had in question was under great ormand street and was with us only for 3 months as they were staying at grand parents whils their house was being built. We were unable to get a nurse to come out to train us on the tube feeding (not sure why they wouldnt) but insurance said it was ok for mum to do it and that we had to risk assess, care plan etc.Mum only left us to do it on our own once we were completely happy and we had simple concise instructions of what to do, others who were also trained were always present as witness etc,