Medicines Management Policy - Dudley Primary Care Trust

9. Administration
Registered healthcare professionals will normally undertake the administration
of medicines. Exceptions are Community Health Care Staff and Social
Services staff that have been trained in, and assessed as competent in, the
administration of medication (with the exception of CDs which are not to be
personally administered by these staff). Documentation of training should be
maintained by the Team Leader/Coordinator who has responsibility for ensuring
such training is completed. A record of this training should be held in the staff
member’s personnel file.
Only medicines that have been authorised by a medical or dental practitioner,
or other authorised prescriber or a healthcare professional authorised via a
Patient Group Direction must be administered to patients/clients. This
authorisation must be in writing, in the form of a prescription, in advance of the
administration of the medicine, (see section 2, Prescribing of medicines).
In areas where there are no resident prescribers and in cases of clinical
urgency a verbal instruction is acceptable (see section 12), except for schedule
2 and 3 controlled drugs, other than Phenobarbital for epilepsy.
See section 10 for further guidance on the administration of controlled drugs
.
9.1 Administration must be carried out in accordance with the patient/client’s
prescription. This can be ascertained by having present at the time of
administration one of the following:
a) A clear written direction from an independent prescriber or a PGD.
b) A duplicate copy of the discharge medication.
c) Verbal prescription in extreme circumstances only. (Section 12)
If there is any uncertainty regarding the prescriber’s intention this must be
clarified prior to administration, e.g. clarification of abbreviations not included in
2.7.6
9.2 The healthcare professional responsible for the drug administration must
ensure the following elements of the procedure are achieved: -
i) The patient/client is correctly identified and informed consent gained
before taking their medication or there is authorisation of administration.
ii) The patient/client is assessed to ensure they are able to receive the
medication and that it is safe to administer it.
iii) The correct drug and formulation is selected.
iv) The correct dose (i.e. strength or quantity) is selected.
v) The correct route is used to administer the drug.
24