Tips for the School Nurse

Note: If there is not a nurse at your school, these tasks should be assigned to an appropriate staff member. This person should be trained in asthma basics and know how to manage asthma as well as knowing what to do in an emergency.

• Get an asthma action plan for each student with asthma. Make sure that the plan includes information on medications and dosages, triggers, and emergency procedures and contacts.
• Alert staff members about students who have asthma.
• If you suspect a student has uncontrolled asthma, contact their parents and ask them to seek evaluation from their provider.
• Administer medications in accordance with school policy, making sure that medications are administered at the right times. Be knowledgeable about the Minnesota inhaler law that allows students to carry their quick-relief inhaler with them at school if certain requirements are met.
• Monitor the peak flow readings of students with asthma, if possible.
• Let parents know when their children have asthma episodes in school. Also keep them informed of how their child's asthma is being controlled at school.
• Conduct in-services on asthma for school staff.

Adapted from Managing Asthma: A Guide for Schools. National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes (NHLBI), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Teaching, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education. September 1991. NIH Publication No. 91-2650.

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