Читать книгу Fundamentals of Pharmacology for Children's Nurses - Группа авторов - Страница 29

NICE guidance has identified the term ‘medicines optimisation’, meaning ‘to make the best or most effective use of’ medicines, equipment or resources. To this end the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (2013) have developed four guiding principles:

 Aim to understand the patient’s experience

 Evidence‐based choice of medicines

 Ensure medicines use is as safe as possible

 Make medicines optimisation part of routine practice

Medicines optimisation is a wider encompassing approach than the system approach of medicine management. Medicines optimisation is an important concept in health and social care and is relevant for CYP with chronic or long‐term conditions or those who are taking more than one medication. The optimisation approach is person‐centred and develops an individual patient‐ or professional‐led self‐management plan for patients. Within paediatrics, depending on the age of the CYP, the family‐centred care approach maybe more appropriate, with the family being involved in the development of the self‐care plan for the child. It is also important to identify any over the counter medications or complementary therapies that may interfere with the effectiveness of any prescribed medication.

Where a child is on multiple medicines or the medicines need to be administered in a different way such as via a feeding tube, additional support and follow‐up might be needed. This should be identified whilst in hospital and support arranged before discharge. Within elderly care environments a screening tool is available to identify potential medicine‐related patient safety incidents. Within CYP care environments there does not appear to be such a screening tool available.