09 Oct 5 Action plan templates for schools
Action plans are the first step to understanding, and being prepared for, complex student health needs. They document known health conditions, provide treatment guidelines, and keep everyone’s minds a little more at ease.
The goal of an action plan is to provide school nurses and administrators with the necessary information to treat a student for a condition they may have – this includes allergies, diabetes, seizures, and more. In fact, action plans are so vital that we included them in our list of the seven essential components of a student health file.
Now, join us as we provide you with five action plan templates for schools that you can use to better understand your students’ health needs. Distribute these forms to parents before the beginning of the year, or better yet, utilize conditional questions so that parents aren’t burdened with unnecessary paperwork. The bonus for Magnus Health SMR customers is that your action plans are digitally distributed to parents (using conditional questions if you choose) – meaning everything is already set!
At the end of this post, you’ll be able to download all five forms, plus six other templates to create a complete student health file. Now, let’s get started!
1. Anaphylaxis Action Plan
The American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) has put together an Anaphylaxis Emergency Plan that can be filled out by a student’s doctor, signed by a parent, and kept on file at your school. This action plan is among one of the four most common types of action plans (next to asthma, diabetes, and seizures), and it details anaphylaxis symptoms to look for. The most dangerous of these, as stated by the AAAAI, are low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, and loss of consciousness.
2. Asthma Action Plan
This action plan is provided by the American Lung Association and details “zones” (green, yellow, red) to determine a student’s severity of asthmatic symptoms. Along with each zone, this action plan provides corresponding protocols so that proper treatment can be provided. To calculate a student’s zones, this action plan utilizes a peak flow meter and/or symptoms.
3. Diabetes Medical Management Plan
The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) reports that diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases among school-aged children, which means there’s no reason not to include this diabetes medical management plan in your student form packet. Though longer in length, this action plan provides schools with a complete treatment plan for hypoglycemia treatment, insulin therapy, and more.
4. Food Allergy Action Plan
It’s no secret that food allergies are alarmingly common these days – they affect 1 in 13 children to be exact. The result is apparent, as our Annual Report of Independent School Health Services found that just over 94% of independent schools require a food allergy action plan to be kept on file for students.
That’s why this food allergy action plan from Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) is key for schools. With it, nurses and administrators can determine if a student’s allergy symptoms are mild or severe. The action plan also provides instruction to administer an epinephrine auto-injector, should a serious allergic reaction occur.
5. Seizure Action Plan
Although public awareness of epilepsy isn’t quite as high as public awareness of food allergies, seizures still remain as one of the four most common action plans. In fact, epilepsy affects over 2 million people according to the Epilepsy Foundation. That’s why this seizure action plan rounds out our five action plan templates for schools. It allows for detail to describe what the individual student’s warning signs of a seizure are, and how the student responds after having a seizure.
What other action plans do you collect? Download all five templates (and more) in our free toolkit below.