trade organizations representing registered and school nurses (collectively Nurses) challenge the Department’s advice as condoning the unauthorized practice of nursing. The American Diabetes Association (Association), which is a party to the federal settlement agreement, defends the Department’s advice as intervener. In fact, California law expressly permits trained, unlicensed school personnel to administer prescription medications such as insulin in accordance with the written statements of a student’s treating physician and parents (Ed. Code, §§ 49423, 49423.6; Cal. Code Regs., tit. 5, §§ 600, 604, subd. (b)) and expressly exempts persons who thus carry out physicians’ medical orders from laws prohibiting the unauthorized practice of nursing (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 2727, subd. (e)). Through these provisions, state law in effect leaves to each student’s physician, with parental consent, the question whether insulin may safely and appropriately be administered by unlicensed school personnel, and reflects the practical reality that most insulin administered outside of hospitals and other clinical settings is in fact administered by laypersons. The Nurses‟ arguments to the contrary lack merit. I. BACKGROUND The question whether California law permits unlicensed school personnel to administer medications is, like all questions of law, subject to de novo review. (See Bruns v. E-Commerce Exchange, Inc. (2011) 51 Cal.4th 717, 724 .) We thus draw freely from the undisputed evidence in setting out the facts of the case before us. Diabetes is a chronic, incurable disease that prevents the human body from properly using food to produce energy. Insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas, transports glucose (a sugar derived from food) through the bloodstream to the cells. In a person with diabetes, the body either does not produce insulin, or enough insulin (type 1 diabetes), or cannot use insulin
Chapter 23 – Provision of Healthcare Services, Charter SELPA As of 09/08/2017 CAHELP Governance Council Approved
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