The neonatal unit at Leeds Teaching Hospitals (LTHT) began daily safety huddles to identify ward risks and share learning points in September 2015.
Following on from this, following the safety huddle, we now do a weekly druggle, led by the pharmacist.
This is a concept developed by West Hertfordshire Hospitals that we have adapted to use at LTHT.
The aims of the druggle are to increase communication between the MDT, to educate staff on specific topics relating to medicines, to highlight areas for improvement and to encourage discussion.
The format of the druggles is a five minute presentation including a hot topic (ideally suggested by a member of the MDT), anonymised error of the week (to provide feedback in real time and share learning from the error) and the results from the weekly prescribing audit.
The topics are then discussed by the team and disseminated to staff not present.
Examples of hot topics include antimicrobial prescribing, use of the BNFc, dose rounding, completion of allergy statuses and changes to guidelines.
Each week we complete a prescribing standards audit of five randomly selected charts. It’s plotted on a run chart to allow visual illustration of what we’ve achieved and staff gain positive reinforcement to continue to improve.
We completed a baseline audit of every chart at the beginning of a doctors’ rotation and repeated this at the end of their rotation. Significant improvements were made in several areas of prescribing.
Feedback from staff has been extremely positive and there is a perceived improvement in medicines safety culture.
Some quotes from staff include “the druggle is what I look forward to most in the handover every week” and “I find it really useful, it means that I’m challenging myself and the doctors a lot more, I’m picking up on errors more and I feel that I’m learning something new every week”.