Medications at Camp

To send medication to Camp Onas, three things must occur:

  1. The medication has been listed on the Health History form. At check-in, caregivers will pass these to our Nurses. Last minute updates can be given here. 
  2. Every medication arrives in proper packaging (original pharmacy bottle, commercial packaging, or pharmacy pill pack).
  3. That medication has a prescriber’s order for our nursing staff to give that medication to your camper.

Your child’s prescriber writing orders for our nurses to give the medication to your child.  This is different from the prescription given to the pharmacy (but a common request of them).   They can use their own or Camp Onas’ Medication Form for Physicians & Parents [PDF][PNG][JPG].  Note: screenshots of medication portals (Prescribers or Pharmacy) are NOT ‘orders.’

or 

Our Camp Physician has written orders for our nurses to give the medications [stocked medications] listed in the Health Form (after checking precautions.) If it’s on that list and you’d like it to be scheduled (for example, night time antihistamine), fill out the bottom portion of the Medication Orders Form and upload or bring it to check-in. 

Our Camp Physician has also written orders for our nurses to supervise continued home use. It is a short list, but worth checking out, as if it meets those requirements, you won’t need to contact the prescriber for an order. These are some medications for seasonal allergies, rescue inhalers, routine GI symptoms and so forth. The complete list and policy is found in the P&G HB.

Unfortunately, if any of these are missing, we cannot accept the medication at check-in. This is required by Pennsylvania law.

Quick Links

Medication Order Form: Required for prescriber-written orders authorizing camp nurses to administer medication; can also be used to request scheduled use of stocked medications.

Stocked Medication List: List of medications for which the Camp Physician has pre-written orders, allowing nurses to administer them after reviewing the camper’s Health Form and precautions.

Medications Approved for Continued Use: Limited list of medications (e.g., certain allergy, rescue inhaler, and routine GI treatments) that nurses may supervise without a prescriber’s order if criteria are met, as outlined in the P&G HB.

Proper Packaging Guide: This document gives you instructions on how to ensure that your child’s medication arrives in proper packaging, what that means, and different ways to do it.