The General Nursing Council and Margaret Callum Rodger Midwifery Awards provided a charitable contribution to NES Knowledge Network enabling nursing and midwifery practitioners access to eBooks that would support them in the delivery of patient care.

The next round of funding are now open for applications and will close on Wednesday 27 January 2023.

The General Nursing Council are keen to year from care home and social care nurses, so please spread the word via your networks.

Find out more on: General Nursing Council | NHS Education for Scotland

There is also a Sway with the key points of this award, available on: https://sway.office.com/odbuptTzZmqlS4y9?ref=Link

The Scottish Government have contracted the Care Inspectorate to look at the prescribing, use and review of psychoactive medication in care homes during the pandemic. This work will commence in a few months and will involve only a sample of care homes.

As your Transforming Workforce Lead, I am keen this work will inform future supports that are needed for people in the sector, including staff.

Dr David Marshall, Senior Improvement Adviser (Pharmacy) at the Care Inspectorate said “I am delighted that Dr Jane Douglas [Scottish Care Transforming Workforce Lead (Nursing)] has agreed to represent the sector at the report writings stage of this project”.

We are all aware of the impact on the sector caused by recent national investigations into operations during Covid-19. We also recognise the potential for stress with any such medication work. However, I am assured that the thrust of this work is about looking at the legitimate appropriate use of psychoactive medicines, and that the methodology used will keep operational impact to a minimum.

The beginning of Covid-19 presented particular challenges for all working in the care sector, including the necessary suspension of many of the normal services and supports that we receive and that we can offer. Understanding the relationship between the COVID-19 virus and the impact it had on care services and on those living with dementia, especially during the first wave, is crucial.

Following engagement with people living with dementia and their carers, the government produced their Dementia And Covid-19 – National Action Plan.  More information on that can be found at the link below.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/dementia-covid-19-national-action-plan-continue-support-recovery-people-dementia-carers/

Residents who live in care home settings are now eligible to register with a community pharmacy and participate within the new Medicines: Care and Review (MCR) service. MCR has three key elements – medication review, provision of pharmaceutical care and serial prescribing. The service is well embedded into daily practice for people who do not live in a care home setting, however, it is a new concept for care homes and required feasibility testing to help support potential change in medication management processes.

Five health boards have been participating in a pilot to test the application of serial prescriptions (SRx) in a care home.  The pilot has successfully demonstrated that SRx can be used within care home settings and has provided improvements in communication between the care home, the GP practice team and community pharmacy. In addition, it has also resulted in reduced interim prescription requests and a reduction in unnecessary pharmaceutical waste/drug returns.

A SRx is a prescription that may be supplied to people who have a long-term condition(s) and will remain valid for up to 56 weeks, with items dispensed in accordance with a dispensing frequency defined by the prescriber. The main differences between a repeat prescription and a SRx are that the person does not need to reorder a prescription each time an item is required. This brings a fundamental change to how prescriptions are managed within the care home for residents with stable medication regimes for long term conditions.

SRx is supported by electronic messaging (ePharmacy system) between general practice and the community pharmacy. GPs will receive notification on the next working day after an item is dispensed; this notification will update the GP patient record as well as the patient’s Emergency Care Summary (ECS).

As SRx is underpinned by the ePharmacy system, it is important that if a care home is considering using an electronic MAR system in its service, the new eMAR should be compliant with the Scottish ePharmacy processes.   Each health board has an ePharmacy facilitator who can offer advice if needed.

The national project team is now working to expand the pilot to other health boards in a controlled and supported manner as we continue to test in new scenarios whilst aiming to achieve the same positive results and gather real time intelligence that will be shared to support the wider network as this programme rolls out.    We look forward to your support in this process to improve the medicine system for the benefit of residents and staff.