LawSense Law for School Nurses

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Program

12.00    LawSense Welcome

12.05    Opening Remarks

Janelle Behrens, Health Centre Nurse Manager, Abbotsleigh

Lauren Green, Health Care Manager, Pymble Ladies’ College

Lisa Chalmers, Director of Health & Wellbeing, Barker College; Board Director, APNA

12.10    Scope of Practice and Duty of Care: Understanding Boundaries for School Nurses and Other Healthcare Staff and Clarifying Responsibilities of the School Versus Parents

Defining Scope of Practice and Duty of Care

• Outlining duty of care principles and how they apply to school healthcare staff
• Exploring AHPRA guidelines and relevance to scope of practice and duty of care of nurses and other health care staff

Work Arrangements and Scope of Practice, Duty of Care

• Outlining different work arrangements for healthcare staff in schools: employee, contractor, part-time, casual
• Examining how scope of practice and duties can change with different work arrangements

Training and Experience, Job Descriptions

• Navigating job description, training, experience in determining your scope of practice and duty of care
• First aid and other healthcare staff – exploring scope of practice, supervision and duty of care. How does it differ from scope and duties of school nurses

Navigating Grey Areas and Challenging Scenarios, Including Responsibilities of Healthcare Staff versus Parents

• Beyond first aid – understanding when the duties of healthcare staff can go beyond only providing first aid
• Dealing with mental health issues or suspected mental health issues of students
• Dealing with parents – navigating circumstances where parents:

• • are not providing information for managing or updating student health management plans
  • are not providing consent required
  • are not following doctor’s advice or are making request contrary to your professional judgement or the school’s documented health management plan
  • decline to follow school’s recommendations, such as using webster packs

• Dealing with staff requests for advice or assistance for themselves or their family members

Bernadette Fay, Director of Legal Risk & Compliance, Barker College; Former Registered Nurse

1.20      Break

1.30      Examining Effective and Compliant Medication Management and Implementing Best Practice Policies

Common Medications in Schools and Contraindications

• Reviewing common S8 and other medications used in schools
• Examining contraindications of key medications

Matthew Burton, Pharmacist Proprietor, West Pymble Pharmacy

2.00      Break

2.05     Medication Management – Reviewing Key Laws & How They Apply in Schools

• Understanding key laws applying to medication management in schools and application to school nurses – S8 and non-S8 medicines
• Assessing scope of practice in administering pain relief medication in the event of a severe injury
• Understanding how the new prescribing standards can expand a school nurses scope of practice

Medications Storage

• Examining legal requirements in storage of medicines in schools, including S8 medicines
• Exploring best practice in managing storage of medicines in schools, including
  • exploring practical measures to ensure compliant medications storage
  • medications for camps and excursions
  • Implementing best practice policies, registers and record keeping

Duties Where Students Self-Administer

• Exploring obligations where students self-administer medication:
  • when should you allow self-administration
  • to what extent should you monitor students to ensure they have the relevant medication and are taking the medication

Administration of Medicines by Non-Clinical School Staff

• Examining the rights, obligations and risks in allowing medication administration by non-clinical staff
• Exploring the level of qualifications or training non-clinical staff should have

Ensuring Adequate Consent

• Ensuring you have adequate consent and understanding when you can rely on student consent
• Documenting consent

Developing and Implementing Medication Management Policies

• Exploring best practice medication management policies in schools

Gemma McGrath, Managing Director, Panetta McGrath Lawyers; Former Registered Nurse

3.05      Break

3.15      Student Disability and School Nurses: Navigating Disability and Chronic Illness, Assessing Adjustments, Making Recommendations, Dealing With Camps and Trips and Learning from Case Studies

• Exploring the range of disabilities encountered by schools and the role of the school nurse
• Outlining key laws applying to a student with a disability or chronic illness seeking to enrol at the school or participating in activities, excursions, camps and trips
• Understanding when you can decline enrolment or decline a student from participating in activities, camps or trips
• Examining reasonable adjustments:
  • interpreting and applying obligations to make reasonable adjustments with school camps and trips.
  • how should you approach determining the limits of reasonable adjustments required in each circumstance?
  • exploring particular challenges with overseas trips
  • understanding your options where a parent is not providing adequate or complete information
  • managing experts: responding to experts, briefing, and dealing with school experts
• Learning from case studies and examples:
  • exploring the extent of adjustments in managing a student with chronic illnesses
  • implementing adjustments for students with mental health issues
• Documenting steps and judgments regarding reasonable adjustments and developing support plans

David Scanlan, Employment Law Practice Lead – WA, Mapien Law; Former Director, People and Culture, St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, Perth

4.15      Chairperson’s Remarks

4.20      Event Close

Presenters / panelists include:

	Lisa Chalmers has a Bachelor of Nursing and master’s in public health with a background in epidemiology/ vaccine research and surveillance. Lisa began her nursing career at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne in NICU and commenced her school nursing career as ‘Matron’ at an International Boarding School in Singapore in the 1990’s caring for the children of expats from all over the world. She has worked extensively in both hospital and community roles in Singapore, Dublin and Fiji where she headed up the Health Centre at the US Embassy.
	Bernadette Fay started her career in emergency and trauma nursing in Sydney before moving into leading Public Health roles including serving as the Queensland Women’s Health Officer. Bernadette was admitted as a solicitor in 2006. Bernadette became the lead investigator and managed enterprise risk for NSW Health in clinical and corporate governance roles before joining the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, including leading the dispute resolution division. Bernadette has moved into the education sector, joining Barker College as the Director of Risk & Compliance.
	Gemma McGrath practises in the areas health and aged care law, vocational regulation and dispute resolution. Prior to studying law Gemma worked as a registered nurse in QLD. She has previously held positions as the legal member on various HRECs and has also been previously named in the Doyle’s Guide as a Leading WA Medical Negligence Lawyer (Defendant).
	David Scanlan is a Senior Employment Lawyer at Mapien Law heading up their WA office, having commenced in September 2025. He has just recently left the role as the Director of People & Culture at St Hilda’s, which he held since 2020. Prior to joining St Hilda’s, David worked in private practice as lawyer.

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