1. Resource use by pharmacists providing paediatric services
Alice Burridge
Aston University

2. Contents
Introduction
Method
Results
Conclusions

3. Introduction
What do we know about the resources pharmacists use to support their decision making when providing paediatric services?
What impact might this knowledge have on development of technology used by pharmacists such as electronic prescribing and electronic health records?

4. Method Self completed online questionnaire.
Questionnaire was distributed via by the NPPG.
Design of questionnaire informed by prior focus groups with pharmacists and other healthcare professionals and literature review.

5. Results – most frequently used resources
1. Patient notes
Used daily by 90% of respondents.
2. Patient results
Used daily by 78% of respondents.
3. BNFc
Used daily by 75% of respondents.

6. Results – most useful resources
1. BNFc
2. Guy’s and St Thomas’ paediatric formulary
3. Neonatal formulary

7. Results – lack of paediatric prescribing information
What type of paediatric information is lacking?
None – 6%
Lack of access to information – 15%
Links to individual patient factors – 28%
Paediatric doses – 32%
Lack of advice other than ‘caution’ – 51%
Availability of paediatric formulations – 64%
Other – 29%.

8. Results – lack of paediatric prescribing information
Does lack of paediatric prescribing information affect patient care?
Yes = 62%
No = 14%
Don’t know = 24%

9. Results – is there a difference in difficulty between prescribing for children and prescribing for adults?
3 types of response:
Yes, children are more difficult.
No, there is no difference.
Don’t know.
Why?

10. Conclusions
There is no single resource that meets the information needs of pharmacists.
Developers of hospital IT systems should consider the information needs of pharmacists in order to help facilitate their work in improving medication safety in hospitals.

11. Questions?