This year will be the eighth annual medicines safety week (#MedSafetyWeek) social media campaign and it will take place on 6 to 12 November 2023.
We all have a responsibility to ensure that patients receive medicines safely.
The ‘Medicines Overview’ section in JRCALC states that part of the safety aspects of medicines administration is to go through certain checks. These checks can be summarised as “The six RIGHTS of Medicines Administration”.
To support embedding the practise of always going through the process of the 6 rights when administering a medicine a poster, in fact two, have been developed.
The posters were first developed by the Medicines Safety Officer (Rachael.fallon@nwas.nhs.uk) at the North West Ambulance Service but have since been endorsed by the Ambulance Service Medicines Safety Officers Network, the College of Paramedics and now also the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives.
The posters come in a short aide memoir format and then a more detailed version giving prompts of examples this check in the medicines administration process would cover.
These posters are being promoted to all staff working in ambulance services, as well as undergraduate paramedics, to support minimising some of the risks around the administration of medicines.