Preparedness for students and staff with anaphylaxis.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• School Nursing
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Schools manage life-threatening events like anaphylaxis.
• California allows stock epinephrine auto-injectors and training for staff.
• This study explores school nurse experiences with anaphylaxis and stock epinephrine programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore California school nurses' experiences with life-threatening anaphylaxis.
• To investigate the implementation of stock epinephrine auto-injector programs.
• To identify barriers to implementing these emergency programs.

Main Methods:

• Exploratory, cross-sectional, descriptive study design.
• Online survey of 171 credentialed California school nurses.
• Data analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson's chi-square.

Main Results:

• 30% of nurses reported using one student's epinephrine for another.
• Only 13% of schools had stock epinephrine programs despite permissive policy.
• Barriers included limited nursing services, lack of policies/guidelines, inadequate funding, and insufficient education.

Conclusions:

• Legislative initiatives alone are insufficient for effective anaphylaxis management in schools.
• Increased education for school personnel is crucial.
• Further research is needed to overcome barriers to emergency care access during school hours.