ASSESSING STAFF COMPETENCE TO ADMINISTER MEDICINES - Company Training

I’ve been a pharmacist for 25 years working across all sectors: hospital, community, pharmaceutical companies and academia. I spent several years in my last role as Consultant Pharmacist in Social Care at Brighton and Hove NHS PCT and Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton.

During this time, it became clear that much of what passed medication training involved staff sitting through slide-shows or being talked at by someone in front of a flip chart.

But think of a course you attended last year… what was on the 5th slide, 2nd bullet point down? Surely medicines administration is too important for a “tick box” approach.

My formal teacher training at the university made me realise there was a better way: focus on competency.

Administering medication is a practical skill. It needs close attention to detail and practise to get right. Strip out the theory, write it down, and give this to staff as a permanent reference for them to refer to. Then make the training practical, teach staff to administer medication by actually having them do this, rather than just talk about it. So that’s what I did.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) requires care providers to have a formal system to assess staff competence. This practical workshop will provide you with the knowledge, materials and skills to achieve this. The course includes distance learning.

Important: please see prior learning below

Learning outcomes

1. Describe what the legal/best practice requirements state in terms of assessing staff competence
2. An introduction to the PTC Competence Assessment Checklist and how to download it
3. Understand our Direct Observation Checklist
4. Tailor the direct observation checklist to your own organisation (if needed)
5. State which medicines require gloves to be worn
6. State what non-competence looks like when medicine are administered and the errors that can result
7. State how staff must take meals into consideration when deciding when medicines are due
8. Demonstrate the overall process of giving medication
9. Practice using the checklist to assess the overall process of giving medication
10. Demonstrate your own competence to select and record medicines using a 6-point cross check
11. Practice using (and where to download) our simulated blister pack competence assessments
12. Assess someone administering a tablet and capsule
13. Assess someone administering a cream and ointment
14. Assess someone administering an inhaler
15. Assess someone administering an eye drop

Prior learning

It will be assumed that you already know the following:

1. What checks should you make on a mixed monitored dosage system (MDS)?
2. How should you record medicines given from original packs?
3. Explain the information you would find on a pharmacy label
4. How to check once opened dates and expiry dates
5. How to carry out a 6-point check when selecting medication
6. Demonstrate how to measure out the correct amount of medicine using a measuring cup
7. Demonstrate how to measure out the correct amount of medicine using an oral syringe
8. Demonstrate giving oral liquids from oral syringes
9. Demonstrate how to administer topical items
10. Demonstrate how to administer inhalers
11. Demonstrate how to give an eye drop

If you need more training in the above, these learning outcomes are covered on our full-day PCMA® workshop (Practical Competencies in Administering Medication), details available on request.

Course mapping

NICE – Management of Medicines in Care Homes, March 2014

NICE – Management of Medicines in Community Settings, Due March 2017 Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 12

Nurses and care support workers with a role in assessing staff competence