School nurses are great champions of the Connecticut Poison Control Center. What do school nurses like best about our service? Follow-up, the poison center calls back to check on patients when necessary!

How We Can Help

School nurses can call the Poison Control Center for:

• Overdoses
• Unintentional poisonings
• Pill identification
• Treatment advice
• Symptoms to watch for
• When to use charcoal
• Advice on when to transport
• Antidote information and coordination
• Hazardous materials
• Reporting a poisoning
• Protecting the public health
• Information on trends of abuse

Continuing Education

The community education specialist provides education for school nurses at professional development days, meetings and conferences at the local, regional, and statewide levels.

We offer a variety of trainings to suit your needs. A training may include: beyond the basics – what most people don’t know about the poison center; National Poison Data System; monitoring hazardous trends; common school poisonings; resources and additional programming. We also offer the Poison Safety Helper Program.

Outreach

Point of Service Display

The Keep Them Safe point of service display 8.5 x 11 cardboard stand-up marketing tool includes a coordinated color scheme, images of faces, poison prevention tips, and a brochure holder with bilingual flyers about first aid and poison center attributes. The display allows students, teachers and parents to link a service to a symbol, making the service more tangible. It also provides more impact and an efficient organized way to display a service and accompanying materials. Contact the community education specialist if you are a school nurse who would like one mailed to your school(s).

• Keep Them Safe

Point of Service Display Project Summary

The goal was to increase poison center awareness and visibility in schools. School nurses were chosen based on findings from past marketing research among low income minorities. The formative evaluation results from 56 respondents were essential to the design and usefulness of the display. Specifically, survey results shaped the design, content and size of the display. The design, production and printing of the point of service display were accomplished. Over 1,200 displays were mailed to all Connecticut schools. Summative evaluation results demonstrated a 97 percent satisfaction rate with the point of service display. Everyone who received a display placed it in an appropriate and visible location, usually in the school nurse office or main office. School nurses estimated over 4,500 views per day.

• Journal Abstract

Lesson plans are available about poisons and poison prevention for audiences ranging from Pre-K through elderly. Content and/or resources on a variety of poisoning topics are available for school communications (staff meetings, newsletters, websites). For more information, contact the community education specialist at poisonmaterials@uchc.edu or (860) 679-4422.