|
Food Allergies: Building the Coordinated Care Plan
A coordinated care plan ensures that care is safe, reliable, continuous and effective.
Your child's IHP and 504 Plan provide the information, guidelines and standards that promote
both your child's health and educational goals while avoiding unnecessary risk,
restriction, stigma, illness and absences. It establishes a basis for ongoing
teamwork, communication and evaluation.
An Individualized
Health Plan (IHP) is your child's health security plan.
A licensed school nurse develops the IHP in collaboration
with the student's parents
in accordance with applicable laws and standards of practice for nursing in the
school setting. (See the National Association of School Nurses www.nasn.org.)
An IHP is
based on the student's physician's documentation of the student's diagnosis and
recommendations for the student's health and safety in all
locations and during all activities during the school day.
The school nurse ensures that the plan for comprehensive health
management, safety and emergency response is safe, reliable, continuous and effective in
all school settings and activities.
In
addition, a 504 plan defines and coordinates roles, responsibilities, guidelines, policies
and practices for all school staff to enable your child to access and benefit from all elements
of his/her educational program.
The IHP and the 504 plan provides school personnel with the necessary information and authorizations to
make appropriate decisions, the family's and staff's concerns are addressed, roles and responsibilities are clear. (What if......?)
Administrative/Staff discuss...
- How do school routines, policies, staff roles and responsibilities fit student's needs? What adjustments or changes are necessary?
- What is the teacher/administrator's/ school nurse's relationship with student's physician(s)? Who is the parent's school contact?
- How will medication/treatment be administered? health monitored?
- When should the teacher/school nurse call the parent or physician(s) with a question or a concern?
- What special emergency provisions are necessary? What planning should be done with local rescue team? nearest emergency treatment center?
- What places, materials, supplies, events or situations require special caution or guidelines to ensure preventive measures are implemented and that staff have appropriate knowledge of child's needs?
The Emergency Plan
- identify
first responders, back ups, chain of command
- develop
sequential action lists
- require
full participation in drills
- post steps
in every classroom.
- conduct
drills at intervals throughout the year
- document
the drills (who, what, where, when)
Medication - Epinephrine is available at all times.
- The school nurse will train all personnel
to recognize the signs of an allergic reaction, to act promptly, and to summon
emergency help.
- All personnel must know where an EpiPen is
at all times, and how to use it.
Training,
Updates
The school
nurse documents training dates, topics, names of instructors, outlines or
texts of presentations, tests or other means of verifying attendees
understanding of the material, copies of all handouts, and signed attendance
sheets. (Training is required for any change in staffing or school routine, and
after each incident.)
Incident
Documentation, Reports and Analysis
- name, date,
time, place
- name of
teacher present
- names of
witnesses
- type of
incident
- description
of incident
- steps
taken, treatment
administered
Learn from
Experience. Revise guidelines. Replace old copies!
Evaluation
and Communication. (parent/school, school/child, child/parent,
student/student).
Teachers: Precautions and Practical Issues/ Best Practices
- Recognize
students' limited self-report skills.
- Develop and
rehearse cues, signals, key words to ensure child can communicate needs.
- Develop
Food Safety plan. Include monitoring of food products, guidelines for storage,
hygiene, handwashing protocols
- Reminders for children and staff.
- Provide
substitute snacks, emphasize healthy choices.
- Reduce
temptation.
- Always give
preference to the universal option.
- Food
handling - develop, post and enforce guidelines to prevent cross contamination.
- Emphasize
importance of personal hygiene (frequent hand washing) and environmental
hygiene.
- Clarify
expectations for supervision. Report conditions when appropriate
vigilance by staff is compromised by overcrowding, activity demands, etc.
- Communicate
expectations and win cooperation by educating peers, peers' parents, and
auxiliary staff.
- Communicate
confidentiality guidelines to staff and families.
- Know what
to do in case of an emergency.
Educational
links
- Restrictions
are also opportunities for altruism, building peer support (students and
parents), teaching peer refusal skills
- Orientation:
emphasize optimism
- Ingredient
substitutions presented as challenges, problem solving, categories, math sets
- Placement,
seating, monitoring - structuring activities
- Labeling
foods, color codes, substitutions (art, science) ingredients (math,
science)
- Labeling
safe areas - reminders (learning strategies, art)
- Health
education goals
Respecting different food choices for a variety of reasons, i.e.,
allergies, diabetes, high blood pressure, medications, weight control, taste
preferences, religion (kosher), cultural choices
Health and hygiene practices
washing
hands
cleaning up
spills
safe
storage, latches and locks
fire safety,
stranger danger
reporting
illness and injury
Planning to
Promote Developmentally Appropriate Self-Care
- speech and language development, group
skills
- negotiation skills
- peer refusal skills
- ability to delay gratification
- consumer education skills
Promoting
Resiliency and Self-esteem
- validating needs and feelings: you are the
expert; everyone needs help once in a while; a lot of people have allergies; no
one can eat anything they want all the time...
- respecting/acknowledging challenges -
staff/students/community
- providing advance notice, process time,
options/control
- having appropriate expectations
(independence/dependence)
- trust building - believe the child
|
