SUMMARY - Safe Medications Management project: Key issues and ...

1. Results of Industry SurveyThe Consultants identified emerging themes under the key domains.1.1. Issues Identified By DomainsIn presenting the results, the Professional/Industry Codes and Guidelines Themes have beencombined with the Legislative/Regulatory Themes as respondents frequently did not discriminatebetween these two Domains in their responses.1.1.1. Workforce ThemesRecruitment difficulties RNs & ENs - Residential & CommunityUnpopular field of nursing – high workloads, little recognition, not as prestigious.High proportion of older RNs approaching retirement.Pay disparities with acute hospital nursing.Shortage of RNs and ENs in rural and remote areas.High turnover.Few full time nurses – placing high demands on those who are full time or work substantialhours.Low staffing levels - ResidentialFunding formulae does not match resident/client needs or unexpected absences andunfilled shifts (see Recruitment above).Many ENs do not want the responsibility of medication administration.Workloads – Residential Onerous and time-consuming regulatory, transaction and compliance demands -Residential Aged Care Standards, documentation, authorisations, checking prepackedmedicines from Pharmacy, “chasing” scripts from doctors & supplies from pharmacies.Insufficient time to supervise, teach and mentor care staff. Increasing numbers ofresidents in both low and high care settings require specialised nursing and/or complexcare, resulting in a need for more supervision of personal care staff.High requirement for RNs to undertake all or most of the medication administration. Thiscan be time consuming due to complex care, polypharmacy & medication managementarrangements required to address resident swallowing problems, combined with broadermanagement roles.1.1.2. Clinical Practice ThemesKnowledge, skills, competency, and literacy of care staff:Inconsistencies in training personal care staff on medication management.2