A Study on Prescription and Management of Medicines by School-Nurses

양호교사(養護敎師)의 투약(投藥) 및 의약품관리(醫藥品管理) 실태(實態)

The purpose of this paper is to understand the prescription and management of medicines by school-nurses. A survey was mailed to 199 school-nurses in elementary and secondary schools in Pusan from February 10 to March 31, 1997. It was shown that 97.0% of the schools have visiting school-doctors and only 29.6% have visiting school-pharmacists. 36.7% of the respondents don't know the amount of this annual health-related budget. Concerning the annual budget of purchasing medicines, 50.4% of the elementary schools spend 210,000 won to 400,000 won and 45.0% of the secondary schools spend more than 610,000 won. 56.3% of the respondents said the budget was enough, but 5% said it was not. 70.9% of the schools purchase medicines twice a year. The average number of students visiting the nurse in a year are 1,892 in elementary schools, 1.6 times per student and 2,471 in secondary schools, 1.7 times per student, respectively. The annual average number of students who were prescribed medicine a year are 1,804 in elementary schools, 1.5 times per student, 2,372 in secondary schools, 1.7 times per student. The percentage of students who are prescribed internal medicines was 45.5% in elementary, schools and 61.3% in secondary schools, respectively. To the preralence sicknesses, the wound was the most common, accounting for 42.7% in elementary and 22.6% in secondary schools. Next was abdominal pain, indigestion, and headaches in elementary schools; and colds, indigestion, and abdominal pain in secondary schools, respectively. To the dirersity of medicines prescribed: internal medicines 29 for abdominal pain, 25 for indigestion, 8 for physiological pain, 13 for headaches, 30 for colds, and 10 for eye disease; external medicines 2 for skin disease, 10 for toothaches and 31 for other sicknesses. 42.7% of the respondents said the schools have enough medicines, but 7.6% said that schools need more. 50.8% of the respondents said they get information on medicines from TV advertisements or medicine-related books, 16.6% get information from visiting pharmacists. More experienced nurse-teachers are likely to get information from visiting pharmacists, but 37.5% of the respondents who have less then four year experience in school get information through other nurse-teachers before deciding to buy medicines. To the choice of medicines: 83.9% of the respondents said that they choose safe medicines with less side-effects. 40.7% responded that they write down the prescription history daily, but 6.1% said they do this only once in two or three months. To the confidence in prescriptions, 37.7% of the respondents said they are sure of the effectiveness of the medicines they prescribe. To what extent the nurse-teachers prescribe, 50.3% said they prescribe to the level of anagelics, and 21.1% prescribe to anti-histamines and antibiotics. 80.4% said that the details of illnesses and medicines to be prescribed in school should be regulated by a school health-care law. To the problems in prescription, 79.9% of the respondents worry about abuse by students who want prescriptions but have no serious illnesses, 57.8% worrg about the lack of information on medicines and dosage. And 55.8% said they can't tell the difference between medicines whose brands are different, but bare the same ingredients. The conclusion of this study is that a health education program is necessary to prevent the misuse or abuse by students and a continuing education program for school-nurses is needed to solve the problems related to the purchasing and prescription of medicines. The criteria of the prescription of medicines also should be regulated by a school health-care law or management acts.