ABSTRACT
Organizing and maintaining your classroom includes being aware of and prepared for the medical needs of your students and possible medical emergencies. Give your room and yourself a wellness check-up. Check-up
Review student medical-information cards. Be aware of students’ health concerns: allergies to food, insect bites, bee stings, and airborne contaminants. Know which students have medical conditions, such as ADHD, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and heart conditions.
Create a class medical list. Ask the school nurse or office personnel for medical information about your students. Using that information, make a list, including the student’s name, the nature of the concern, and its required treatment and medication. Be sure to have the medicine’s exact name, dosage, and frequency.
Share list appropriately. Place copies of the list in your plan book and substitute teacher folder, and share the list with your students’ other teachers. Let the cafeteria manager know about students’ food allergies. Be discriminating when sharing the list, because medical information is confidential and you must safeguard students’ privacy.
Check the school policy on medication. Learn the school’s procedure for administering medicine at school and on field trips. Most schools have specific forms for logging the time the medication was administered, the dosage, and the method (e.g., oral), which usually must be submitted to the clinic at the end of the field trip.
Learn care procedures. Knowing basic first aid is important, but you also must know the steps to take should a student with medical concerns have a severe reaction—as with children who have diabetes, severe allergies, or are prone to seizures. For example, you need to know how to administer an EpiPen in case a student with severe allergic reactions to stings has a run-in with a bee. First aid and CPR classes are recommended and may be required.
Plan ahead for emergencies. Learn the school’s procedure for a medical emergency, including moving from the classroom or playground to the clinic, and then plan your classroom emergency plan from it. When going to recess, for example, you may decide that it’s helpful to carry a clipboard with your class list of medical information, clinic passes, and a pen.
—Madeline Kovarik, Co-author, The ABC’s of Classroom Management