Aim The aim of this study was to gather the views of primary care healthcare professionals (HCPs) on the issues faced by parents/carers of babies discharged home with medication from neonatal units in the UK. This information will be used to compare and expand on findings from data collected from parents/carers and HCPs in secondary care which highlighted the challenges that may arise during this process.

Method A stakeholder map was created by the study pharmacist with support from the project leads. A previous e-survey for HCPs in secondary care was amended to be applicable to HCPs in primary care.¹ The e-survey was primarily sent out to stakeholders via email and via the study management group (SMG). It was also advertised on Twitter and within a closed Facebook group of pharmacy professionals. It was open for 4 weeks (22/2/23 to 22/3/23). Reminder emails were sent at 3 weeks. Emails to a community pharmacy network were sent as a recurring email over 2 weeks from 1/3/23 to 15/3/23.

Results 55 primary care colleagues responded to the e-survey including: 19 GP’s, 11 Primary Care Pharmacists, 10 Community Pharmacists, 5 Pharmacy Technicians, 4 Health Visitors, 1 Practice Nurse, 1 Hospital Pharmacist, 1 School Nurse, 1 Public health nurse, 1 GP trainee and 1 Phlebotomist. 67% thought that parents/carers experience problems with medicines when their babies are discharged from hospital. 64% stated they would benefit from further training in neonatal care. 73% felt there is a need for more resources to support parents/carers with questions about medicines. More than half of HCPs (53%) said they received questions from parents/carers who are non-English speaking or where communication is difficult. These results are comparable to those found by the previous e-survey where 70% of secondary care HCPs reported parents/carers experiencing problems with medicines on discharge.

Conclusion This e-survey focused on the views of primary care HCPs on medication issues experienced by parents/carers in their setting. Most respondents felt there was a need for more resources to help support parents/carers with questions about medicines. The need for information to be available in multiple languages and accessible to parents/carers with communication difficulties was confirmed. These findings support the need for access to co-designed medicines information resources to support both parents/carers and healthcare professionals in safe administration of neonatal medicines in the home environment. Translation into multiple languages and adaption for use in parents/carers with communication difficulties is also required.

Reference

1. Bracken L, Gill A, O’Brien F, et al. Paddington study – parent co-designed drug information for parents and guardians taking neonates home – an e-survey of healthcare professionals. The European Academy of Paediatrics (EAP), The European Society for Paediatric Research (ESPR), The European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC). (2022). 9th Congress of the European Academy of Paediatric Societies. DOI: 10.3389/978-2-88971-024-9.