The poison center is a great resource for school nurses. Not only does the poison center offer quick, expert treatment advice for possible poisonings of students and staff, it also can answer questions about a wide variety of medications and other products. The poison center provides educational materials and programming, as well as in-person education.
The Northern New England Poison Center receives about 500 calls a year from school nurses in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Here are just a few of the situations the poison center helped school nurses with in the past couple years:
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School hallway photo by Henry de Saussure Copeland. Creative Commons 2.0. A 6-year-old boy ate sumac berries found near the school.
- Four students ages 7-10 all drank some hand sanitizer.
- An 11-year-old boy was sprayed in the eye with a water-conditioning chemical by another student.
- A 13-year-old girl got formaldehyde in her eye while dissecting a frog in science class.
- A 16-year-old boy accidentally took a double dose of his ADHD medication.
- A student’s cellphone caught on fire and released fumes in the cafeteria.
- A school bus had a potential antifreeze leak into the passenger compartment.
The poison center also helps school nurses in cases where students have abused substances or tried to harm themselves.
Besides cases of possible poisoning, the NNEPC, answers questions for school nurses about products used in the school, medications, trends in substance abuse and more. It offers lessons for use in the classroom on topics such as electronic cigarettes and caffeine, and trainings for school nurses on current poisoning topics, such as opioids and synthetic drugs of abuse.
The poison center is here for school nurses and everybody else, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Just call 1-800-222-1222, chat online or text POISON to 85511.
