EpiPens may soon be in every Washington Community School District building. School nurses Tish Johnson and Diana Flannery proposed an idea to have EpiPens prescribed to each building at the recent school board meeting. Johnson explained the epinephrine autoinjectors could be used in the case of severe allergic reactions, whether that be to food or something in the environment. If implemented, staff would have training on how to use EpiPens in the instance that a child or adult may need it.

Dr. Ryan Flannery was in attendance and said in the case of severe reactions it is an emergency situation, “Everyone is freaked out because you’re talking about giving somebody an injection, but this is basically giving a double or triple the dose of what your body naturally produces when it’s under stress. So you can’t hurt anybody if they’re truly in dire straits. This will not hurt them anymore than they’re already under dire straits. So, you’re not going to ever really cause harm here if you’re truly at the point where somebody needs something like this because they’re showing symptoms of a severe allergic reaction.”

The prescriptions could be written generically to the school building. Johnson added, that like AEDs, the EpiPens could be used to help students or visitors. She added that seconds matter in such emergencies. No formal action was taken and the school board will further look into the proposal.