2 Barber, P. (2013). Medicine Management for Nurses Case Book. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
3 Edwards, S. and Axe, S. (2015). The ten ‘R’s of safe multidisciplinary drug administration. Nurse Prescribing 13(8). doi: 10.12968/npre.2015.13.8.398.
4 Elliott, M. and Liu, Y. (2010). The nine rights of medication administration: An overview. British Journal of Nursing 19(5): 300–305.
5 Elliott, R., Camacho, E., Campbell, F. et al. (2020). Prevalence and economic burden of medication errors in the NHS in England. Policy research unit in economic evaluation of health and care interventions (EEPRU) www.eepru.org.uk/prevalence‐and‐economic‐burden‐of‐medication‐errors‐in‐the‐nhs‐in‐england‐2/ (accessed September 2020).
6 Haddad, P. and Nutt, D. (2020). Seminars in Clinical Psychopharmacology, 3e. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 124–140.
7 Horner, A. (2019). How social prescribing can help young people. Nursing Children and Young People 31(3): 14–15.
8 NHS England (2018). Prescribing of over the counter medications is changing. www.england.nhs.uk/wp‐content/uploads/2018/08/1a‐over‐the‐counter‐leaflet‐v1.pdf (accessed September 2020).
9 NHS England (2020). Social prescribing. www.england.nhs.uk/personalisedcare/social‐prescribing/ (accessed September 2020).
10 NHS National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) (2007). Safety in doses: Medication safety incidents in the NHS. London: NPSA.
11 NICE (2021). British National Formulary for Children. https://bnfc.nice.org.uk/guidance/medicines‐optimisation.html (accessed April 2021).
12 NICE (2015). Medicines optimisation: The safe and effective use of medicines to enable the best possible outcomes. www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng5/chapter/Finding‐more‐information‐and‐resources (accessed July 2020).
13 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018a). The Code Professional Standards of Practice and Behaviour for Nurses, Midwives and Nursing Associates. www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc‐publications/nmc‐code.pdf (accessed June 2020).
14 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018b). Future Nurse: Standards of Proficiency for Registered Nurses www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/standards‐of‐proficiency/nurses/future‐nurse‐proficiencies.pdf (accessed July 2020).
15 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018c). Standards of Proficiency for Nursing Associates. www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/education‐standards/nursing‐associates‐proficiency‐standards.pdf (accessed September 2020).
16 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018d). Standards for Pre‐registration Nursing Associate Programmes? www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/standards‐of‐proficiency/standards‐for‐pre‐registration‐nursing‐associate‐programmes/nursing‐associates‐programme‐standards.pdf (accessed September 2020).
17 Royal College of Nursing and Royal Pharmaceutical Society (2019). Professional Guidance on the Administration of Medicines in Healthcare Settings. London: RCN and RPS. www.rpharms.com/Portals/0/RPS%20document%20library/Open%20access/Professional%20standards/SSHM%20and%20Admin/Admin%20of%20Meds%20prof%20guidance.pdf?ver=2019‐01‐23‐145026‐567 (accessed September 2020).
18 Royal Pharmaceutical Society (2013). Medicines Optimisation: Helping Patients to Make the Most of Medicines. https://www.rpharms.com/Portals/0/RPS%20document%20library/Open%20access/Policy/helping‐patients‐make‐the‐most‐of‐their‐medicines.pdf (accessed April 2021).
19 Tse, Y., Vasey, N., Dua, D. et al. (2019). The KidzMed project: Teaching children to swallow tablet medication. Archives of Disease in Childhood 105: 1105–1107.
20 World Health Organization (2009). Pharmacological Treatment of Mental Health Disorders in Primary Health Care. Geneva: WHO.
Further Resources
EasyHealth (www.easyhealth.org.uk): A resource with over 500 health leaflets that include pictures and very simple text. EasyHealth’s information is accessible to those with low literacy levels, which may include people with learning disabilities.
British Pharmacological Society (www.bps.ac.uk): The BPS, a charity, exists to promote and advance pharmacology in all its forms
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (www.nice.org.uk): NICE provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. The role of NICE is to improve outcomes for people using the NHS and other public health and social care services.
Royal College of Nursing (www.rcn.org.uk/clinical‐topics/medicines‐management): Medicines management. A resource providing guidance and clinical support for nurses and other healthcare professionals on medicines matters.
Royal Pharmaceutical Society (www.rpharms.com): The RPS gives pharmacy a clear, strong voice in all healthcare discussions and decisions across Britain. They also publish the British National Formulary Child.
Street Games (https://network.streetgames.org/our‐work‐changing‐lives‐health/youth‐social‐prescribing): Youth Social Prescribing. Learn more about social prescribing, the work of the Social Prescribing Youth Network and Street Games’ involvement within it, by accessing the various resources.
Multiple Choice Questions
1 The Nursing and Midwifery Council’s purpose is to:Provide government with the details of those nurses and nursing associates who have been found guilty of misconductInform nurse managers how they are to determine patient dependencyPromote and uphold the highest professional standards in nursing and midwifery to protect the public and inspire confidence in the professionsAll of the above
2 To help patients make decisions about medicines:Provide time for them to ask questionsOffer them relevant information which is easy to understand and avoid the use of jargonProvide information that is structured and tailor this to the needs of the individual patient.All of the above
3 Medicines optimisation is generally associated with:The legal regulations in place to safely administer medicinesA