The Health Room is operated daily under the supervision of a registered nurse. The school nurse is responsible for maintaining a health record on all students.
The Health Room is designed to be an emergency station to care for minor illnesses or injuries that occur at school. Injuries or health concerns that occur outside of school should be treated at home or by your health care provider. The school nurse cannot diagnose or prescribe treatment. This is the responsibility of your family physician or health care provider.
There are times when a student should remain at home for his/her own welfare and for the protection of others. Students who have had a dental procedure requiring sedation and/or anesthetic should not return to school until the anesthetic has completely worn off and the student has full feeling returned to their mouth and tongue. Students are at a higher risk for injuring their mouth while it is numb and their pain level cannot be adequately gauged. Students who have had a tooth extracted must also remain at home until they are no longer having active bleeding. Students with a fever must remain home per SCDHEC exclusion guidelines. For other conditions that would require your student to remain at home please see DHEC’s “School Exclusion List” for students who are in 1st through 12th grade and DHEC’s “Childcare Exclusion List” for students who are in K3, K4, K5, or who are medically fragile. These exclusion lists may be located through the district’s web site.
If a student develops a communicable disease, the parent should notify the school nurse. This will allow the nurse to alert the teachers to observe other students for symptoms or to notify appropriate persons if needed. Parents should also notify the school nurse of any special health needs.
In the event that a student becomes ill or injured and needs to go home, the persons listed on the health card will be contacted and expected to come for the child immediately. For this reason the school should be kept up-to-date on any changes in phone numbers of those persons to be contacted in an emergency.
Medications to be taken during school hours must be brought to school and delivered to the school nurse or designated adult in the ORIGINAL container with all labels intact. Over the counter medications should only be sent to school for a specific condition your child is known to experience. Whenever possible, medications should be given before or after school. All medications must be accompanied by parental permission and prescription medication also require written authorization from the prescribing physician or health care provider. Herbals, food supplements, alternative medicinal products, and other items that do not have FDA approval also require a written order from a prescribing health care provider in addition to a parent signature.
The permission for school administration of medication form is available at your child’s school and through the district’s web site. A record of all medications administered at school will be kept for each student. Only those students who have met all of the requirements to self medicate, will be allowed to keep medications on their person. All other medications will be kept at school and must be picked up by a responsible adult when the medication is discontinued, expired, or at the end of the school year. Medication cannot be stored at school over the summer and will be discarded on the last day of the school year unless prior arrangements have been made. Medications are not sent home with students. At the time a prescription is filled, ask your pharmacist to prepare a separate bottle labeled for school use.
If medications are needed on a field trip, the parent/guardian is encouraged to provide the medication in the original pharmacy-labeled bottle with only the dosage(s) needed for the trip along with the consent form signed by the health care provider. The nurse cannot repackage any medications and will need to send the student’s medication bottle containing all of their medication on the field trip if a bottle containing only the required dose is not provided. If over the counter medications are necessary, please purchase and send the smallest size available for this medication along with the consent form signed by your health care provider. If your student will require medication on the field trip that is not currently being given at school you will need to turn the medication, along with the required consent forms into the school nurse one week prior to the field trip. This allows time for the nurse to verify that there are not any problems with the medication and/or consent forms and to train the teacher to properly assist your student with their medications.
