Medication management in the schools in Phrayuen District, Khonkaen Province

Abstract

Introduction: When students first get sick, they always go to a nursing room in the school in order to receive services. The effective nursing system management thus plays an essential role in accessing their basic medical care. Objectives: This study is an attempt to investigate the medication management in schools. Methods: By using the qualitative method, the 28 informants involved in the medical care in the school’s nursing office were engaged in the semi-structured interview. And the observations of 26 schools were carried out in this research. Results: The result revealed that most of the schools were primary schools (46.15%). There are no separate rooms in nursing office. Some have only a cabinet or box used to keep medicine. The nursing teachers do not have expertise in medical first aid. All of the schools did not have the list of medicines. In addition, the dangerous and expired medicines were surprisingly found in many schools. The budget of the agency was not clear and there were no guidelines for referring the students. Conclusion: This study points out the obstacles (i.e. materials, human resources, budget and management system) in developing medication management in schools which will affect on the safety of students’ medical first aid. Hence, it is very important to take an account into the effective nursing system management model in school by co-operating the network community in order to achieve the further sustainable system.