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Pediatric "traffic lights" in pharmacy: warning situations for the community pharmaceutical team
Clémence Lebrun1, Audray Castet-Nicolas2, Sonia Prot-Labarthe3
1Faculty of Pharmacy Montpellier, 15 Avenue Charles Flahault, Montpellier 34000, France.
Insights
Community pharmacists now have a new tool to manage pediatric emergencies and provide expert advice. This initiative aims to enhance patient safety and guide parents toward appropriate care for children.
Area of Science:
- Pharmacy Practice
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Background:
- Community pharmacists are vital for pediatric patient safety and guidance.
- Pharmacist advice significantly impacts parental decisions regarding child health.
- Specialized pediatric training is essential for pharmacists to effectively support children's health needs.
Purpose of the Study:
- Develop practical tools for pharmacists, technicians, and students in pediatric community pharmacy care.
- Provide guidance for appropriate patient advice, consultations, and emergency pediatric care.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and drafting of items covering pediatric pathologies, advice contexts, and emergencies.
- Classification of items into 'red' (life-threatening), 'orange' (relative emergency), and 'green' (good practice) lights.
- Expert consensus (pediatricians, pharmacists) using a two-round method (May-July 2023).
Main Results:
- A consensus was reached among 16 international experts (pediatricians, pharmacists).
- The final tool comprises 53 categorized items (35 red, 7 orange, 11 green) for managing pediatric situations.
- Items were refined based on expert feedback to optimize clinical utility.
Conclusions:
- This tool is a pioneering resource for community pharmacists in pediatric emergency management.
- Future steps include dissemination, evaluation, and regular updates based on feedback.
- The tool aims to strengthen pharmacists' capacity in pediatric care, improving patient and parent outcomes.
Context:
Community pharmacists play a crucial role in providing proximity care and ensuring patient safety, with legally defined responsibilities in prevention, education, and patient guidance, particularly in pediatrics. Studies underscore the importance of pharmacist advice for parents. Therefore, it is imperative that pharmacists receive proper training in pediatrics to effectively guide patients.
Objective:
To draw up items for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy students to help them in the care of children in community pharmacy. The aim was to provide practical tools to guide patients toward appropriate advice, consultations, or pediatric emergency care.
Method:
After a literature review, we drafted items among pathologies, contexts of pharmaceutical advice, and emergency situations. We classified them into "red lights", corresponding to life-threatening emergency situations requiring urgent treatment, "orange lights", corresponding to relative emergency situations, and "green lights", corresponding to elementary and fundamental rules of good practice. We submitted them to a group of experts from the Société Française de Pédiatrie (SFP) and the Société Française de Pharmacie Clinique (SFPC). Pharmacists and pediatricians from all over France and the French-speaking world were contacted to reach a consensus. A two-round consensus method was carried out from May to July 2023.
Results:
The 16 experts were 11 pediatricians, 4 pharmacists, and a duo from Quebec, had between 2- and 30-years' experience and came from France, Switzerland, or Canada. From 55-items (35 red, 9 orange and 11 green), the final tool had 53-items (35 red, 7 orange and 11 green). Items were rewritten, added, categorized or retrieved.
Conclusion:
This tool represents a pioneering initiative specifically tailored for community pharmacists in managing pediatric emergencies. The next steps include dissemination, evaluation, and regular updates of the tool, based on user and expert feedback. Community pharmacists are essential players in providing pediatric advice, and this tool should strengthen their capacity to effectively manage a variety of pediatric situations, thus meeting the needs of patients and parents.
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