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module menu icon Introduction

Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease affecting 9% of children or approximately three children in every school class.

Under current legislation asthma inhalers are classified as prescription only medicines. Historically schools were not permitted to possess or obtain a stock of inhalers for use in an emergency when a pupil’s own inhaler is not available.

An Asthma UK survey revealed that 86% of pupils have at some time been at school without an inhaler because they had either forgotten their inhaler or it was broken, lost, or empty.1

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this module you will be able to:

  • Explain legislation concerning the supply of salbutamol inhalers to schools for the emergency treatment of asthma.
  • Follow the correct process for supplying salbutamol inhalers to schools.
  • Advise teachers on suitable processes for controlling the emergency use of salbutamol inhalers in schools.
1 Inhalers in schools. Asthma UK. https://www.asthma.org.uk/schoolinhalers. Accessed 5th September 2014.