Supplementary memorandum by the Royal
College of Nursing
TRAINING BUDGETS
7 MARCH 2007
Committee members were interested in the annual
anaphylaxis training that school nurses receive and inquired about
who has primary responsibility to provide training for school
nurses. Whilst it is the responsibility of each individual PCT
to ensure that school nurses receive their statuatory training
requirements the RCN has concerns that, as posts remain unfilled
due to financial deficits, many specialist nurses such as school
nurses are finding it difficult to be released for essential training
updates. A recent RCN survey showed that almost a quarter of school
nurses were unable to take time off to undergo further training,
with a lack of career progression proving a problem for three
quarters of nurses.
In a survey undertaken by the RCN in October
2006 we found that 83 per cent of nurses believed training has
been reduced or cut as a result of financial pressures in the
NHS and over 38 per cent of nurses had study leave cancelled.
Whilst these figures apply to the entire nursing workforce reports
from our school nurse members reveal that financial deficits have
impacted on school nurses accessing the training that they require.
EMERGENCY MEDICATION
STOCKS
Our Independent School Nurse representative,
Sarah Day, made a recommendation during the evidence session that
schools could keep an emergency stock of inhalers and epi-pens
instead of holding an individual supply for each child. This was
suggested as an alternative to schools holding a large supply
of individually prescribed medications which by their nature need
to be easily accessible. However, as medication such as ventolin
inhalers and epi-pens are prescription only medications, required
to be prescribed to an individual, it would prove difficult in
the current environment for schools to hold a stock supply of
emergency medication.
The current difficulty is that medication is
prescribed on a patient specific basis and once this has been
done it would be illegal to use prescribed medication for someone
else. To enable school nurses to prescribe and administer from
an emergency stock of medication they would be required to train
as independent nurse prescribers or work under a clinical management
plan as a supplementary prescriber for each child. This would
mean that a smaller emergency stock of medication could be kept
on site and a school nurse could prescribe the medication to the
child in case of emergency. This could work very effectively in
the independent sector or in special schools where there is generally
a registered school nurse on site. However, in the state system
where there is not a registered school nurse permanently on site,
it will continue to be necessary for a stock of emergency individually
prescribed medications to be kept on school premises for administration
as per the Department for Education and Skills guidance on managing
medicines in schools and early year's settings.
April 2007
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