Overcoming Legal Barriers
In some states, legal restrictions may hinder non-nursing staff from administering asthma medications to students. To bridge this gap, advocacy efforts led by medical professionals and organizations, such as the American Lung Association, have been instrumental in advocating for legislative changes. In Arizona, a bill was passed in 2017 that allowed doctors to prescribe medication directly to schools, empowering trained school personnel to administer inhalers during asthma emergencies. From here, the question becomes: Who should be trained to administer the inhaler? Ideally, every teacher should have this training. This is especially if they have a student in their class who has asthma. Additionally, any staff member who acts as a coach or participates in other extracurricular activities should know where, how, and when to access and administer life-saving inhalers to students. This includes any staff that are overseeing recess time, when children are most likely to be active and running around.