by Keith Syverson
Surveys have shown that the vast majority of teachers know of at least one student in their school with a chronic illness. Several studies have investigated the administration of medication in schools from the perspectives of principals or of school nurses, but few studies exist on how students and parents feel about this issue. A 2008 study in the Journal of School Nursing went directly to the source, interviewing students with diabetes, asthma, and ADHD in order to determine the "types of problems and mistakes [they] experience with their medicines at school." The group of researchers included pharmacologists and a professor of nursing. They reached conclusions that surprised them but correspond to modern recommendations for diabetes care.
The researchers initially assumed that the higher the level of responsibility a student has for his or her medication administration, the greater the child's "risk factor index" and the greater the chance of medication error. The authors state that this index is a combination of risk factors previously identified in the literature and "the collective clinical experiences of the authors." These included whether the child: transports his or her own medication to school, stores his or her own medication within reach, and whether the child self-administers his or her own medication. The researchers found that students with diabetes have the highest degree of self-responsibility and thus, as a group, have the highest risk factor index. Contrary to the initial assumption that a high degree of self-responsibility put the student at a high risk for medication errors, the researchers found that diabetic students had the lowest prevalence of medication error. In contrast, a higher prevalence of errors was reported among children with ADHD who had the least amount of self care responsibility.
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