Should educators administer medicine
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Concern has grown in recent years about the extent to which educators should become involved in administration of various forms of medication to pupils. Largely because of the advances in medical science, settings now accommodate children with medical problems that in past years would have presented a barrier either to life or certainly to educational opportunity and which now can be overcome.
I wholeheartedly welcome such advances but am seriously cautious about the way educators are expected to cope with more serious forms of medication, where under normal circumstances some degree of medical knowledge or training would be required.
Examples of such medications would include the administration of rectal valium for epilepsy, or injections for allergies or diabetes. It surely cannot be right that somebody trained to educate a child can also be expected to take responsibility for administration of serious drugs such as these.
Of course there will always be some children who need to take medicines during school hours. Usually the course of treatment lasts only days, but sometimes, and particularly for children at settings for those with special needs, treatment may be continuos. Arrangements for taking medicines during the day vary and in some settings have led to children being denied optimum treatment.
WHEN MEDICINES ARE NEEDED
Four or five children in most classrooms are affected by asthma and the number is increasing. The treatment required at school can vary from a bronchodilator inhaler (for an acute attack or before exercise) to the use of a nebuliser...