Unit 4222-331 Support Use of Medication in Social Care Settings (Hsc 3047)

Supplementary and independent nurse prescribing has taken some years to materialise; this movement was facilitated by Department of Health (DoH), nursing regulators, nursing professional bodies, and general practice (GP) supporters (RCN, 2012). Following the Medicines Act (1992) where only Health Visitors and District Nurses were allowed to prescribe from a limited formulary, over time legislations were subsequently amended allowing non community nurses to prescribe from an extended formulary. In 2003, supplementary prescribing was being recognised and by 2012 The Misuse of Drugs Regulations allowed the nursing formulary to access all of the British National Formulary including controlled drugs. In line with these changes and to ensure that

The Medicines Acts 1968 and various amendments cover the legal management of medication. While care staff are not expected to have detailed knowledge of the legislation, they do need to be aware of the legal difference between types of drugs and the legal framework that allows them to handle medicines on behalf of the service user.

Roles and responsibilities for supporting the use of medication if after the medication has been dispensed and go into the home depending where people live they may need help from care staff to administer the medication after training they staff would be able to support service users to

This paper will demonstrate the author’s ability to prescribe safely from the Nurse Prescribing Formulary (NPF 2009-2011). A prescribing situation undertaken by myself while supervised by my mentor will be discussed. The patients name, address, date of birth and GP details have been changed to ensure patient confidentiality in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)(2004). The patient therefore will be referred to under the pseudonym Prince Charming.

Before administration of any medication the patients chart should be looked at and varify that the patient has no allergies that could be related to said treatment or anything similar in their medical history. Also obtaining a baseline set of vitals prior to medication administration

1. The main legislation that governs the use of medication is The Medicines Acts 1968. The following is a list of legislations that have a direct impact upon the handling of medication within a social care setting.

Assisting – At the request of the service user, opening bottles and packets; removing lids; popping pills out of packages when the service user cannot physically do this and has asked the care worker to help with that specific medicine;

Non care setting - Medications are often stored and administered in a variety of non-health care settings. These settings include: primary and secondary schools, Child day care centres, Board and care homes, Jails and prisons. In all these settings, employees frequently are responsible for handling and administering prescription and over-the-counter medications to clients or residents. Some organizations may employ licensed health professionals to directly manage the medication administration process. However, many of these settings have no licensed health professionals involved. Where medications are stored and administered to individuals, written policies and procedures should address the following: Acquisition of medications (e.g., from parents, caregivers, pharmacies), Specification of which personnel are allowed access to medications and allowed to administer medications to students, clients or residents, Labelling and packaging of medications managed for students, clients

1. In the workplace there is a generic Medication Management Policy and Procedures for Adult Services (Issue 10, 2012) document. This is kept to hand in a locked cupboard, readily available to read. It requires that all Healthcare Staff are given mandatory training and refreshers are provided. Legislation which surrounds the administration of medication includes The Medicines Act 1968, The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, The Data Protection Act 1998, The Care Standards Act 2000 and The Health and Social Care Act 2001

If on the leaflet (which should ALWAYS be kept near the drugs) it says that a medical professional should be contacted if some reactions occur (i.e. bleeding) then follow the instructions. Some reactions may occur but no further medical help is required unless it becomes very bad (like the possible constipation with pain killers such as co codamol, paracetamol etc.)

1.2 Explain how health and safety policies and procedures protect those in social care settings.

patients follow directions and be aware of potential interactions with other drugs. Don’t just change your dose without discussing with your doctor first. Never use another persons prescription.

In this article, the authors evaluate the way of exchanging medication information during hand over in specialty hospitals. In order to ensure a safe continual care for patient, an appropriate communication among health professionals and nurse is indeed necessary while the time of hand over. The researchers were used an explorative qualitative design and an observational study. The study was carried out in four specialty settings of cardiothoracic, intensive, emergency and oncology care in metropolitan Australian public hospital. Consequently

Caregivers encountered some problems during their management of geriatric’s medication. A study in UK has described a range of medication-related problems that was experienced by informal carers. The medication-related problems included ordering and collecting prescriptions from surgery, taking and collecting prescriptions to and from pharmacy, buying and giving medicines, reminding, assisting and deciding how much and how often to take the medicines, opening containers, managing side effects and giving information about the medicines. The results are 67% carers are facing at least one of the problem and 35% reported more than two problems (Smith et al. 2003).

Certain groups of people, such as the very young, the very old, the very sick, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, are more vulnerable to harm from drugs, including over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. When such people use drugs, special precautions, which may include a doctor's supervision, should be taken.