Get Inspired: Learnings from the MedsIQ Champions Network – April 2016
We are always very pleased to share with you the experiences of some MedsIQ Champions in their projects' development. Find out more about the neonatal unit Drug-gle at Leeds Children's Hospital.
Leeds Neonatal Unit began daily safety huddles in September 2015 and after discussion the SAFE team decided to adopt the ‘druggle’ for a weekly event as a trial.
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust piloted the ‘druggle’, as part of the SAFE project, on their Starfish (Neonatal) ward in July 2015. It was a ‘ward-based safety huddle with ward pharmacist, doctors and nurses that was printed and circulated around members of the team.
At Leeds, our team decided that the ‘druggles’ should be a medicines related safety briefing including anonymised examples of errors relating to medicines, in real time. Rather than a hand-out to circulate, we decided to present the ‘druggles’ once a week as part of the huddle in order to initiate conversation between the members of the neonatal team and share learning points.
The first Leeds Neonatal Unit ‘druggle’ took place in November 2015. The basic format of the sessions is a weekly “hot topic”, “error of the week” and to highlight and celebrate good prescribing practice.
The aims of the ‘druggles’ are to increase communication between pharmacists, the medical team and nursing staff, education of all staff regarding specific topics e.g. BNFc changes, recent gentamicin dose change, and to draw attention to areas for improvement and encourage discussion.
The Leeds Neonatal Pharmacy Team (Jenny Brown and Cat Bell)