Field trips are a great opportunity to allow students to learn in a new environment and by having your field trip guidelines in place; it allows these learning and enjoyable moments to be done safely.
To ensure the safety of all students on field trips, the school nurse should be involved in the planning phase of the trip to ensure that all necessary accommodations are in place for students with medical needs. Planning for a trip is a team effort and can go smoothly as schools follow the field trip guidelines:
- Annually, parents are required to provide the school with current medication in its original container and medical orders signed by the physician and the parent
- The School Nurse will train the staff to administer the medication prior to the field trip.
The school nurse will prepare a bag with a copy of the current medication orders, the actual medication and a documentation form.
Field trips provide students with a window to the real world that they do not get in the classroom. It can be a break from the norm, but it is also important to remember to address the needs of the students with medical conditions.
In some instances (for example, if a student has diabetes), the nurse may actually need to join the class on the field trip, and that takes major organization from both a scheduling and preparation point of view as each nurse has several school sites and obligations. Ideally, at the beginning of the school year, the nurse receives the required documentation for medication administration or treatments during school hours.
