Do you have a PRN medicines policy in place?
PRN (pro re nata) medicines, also known as ‘when required’ medicines, are medicines with a ‘when required’ dose that can treat many different conditions (examples include nausea and vomiting, pain, indigestion, constipation, anxiety and insomnia).
The CQC have recently updated their ‘When Required’ medicines in adult social care guidelines.
A person-centered care plan should contain enough information to support staff to administer PRN medicines, ensuring they are administered as intended by the prescriber. When supporting people who may experience distress and agitation you should include the person in question and their families when developing plans.
PRN medicines to manage distress and agitation should be prescribed for as short a time as possible, staff should use a person-centered approach to attempt to relieve distress and agitation before making the decision to use a medicine. The principles laid out in the below should be followed:
- STOMP (stopping over-medication of people with a learning disability and autistic people)
- STAMP (supporting treatment and appropriate medication in paediatrics)
Your medicines policy should tell staff how and when they should be offering and/or administering PRN medicines. And when they do administer PRN medicines what they should be recording.
The full update from CQC can be found here:
If you need any help with updating any of your policies or processes, please contact us.