Medicines Management: Professional resources

RCN

• RCN. Medicines Management: An overview for nursing
• RCN advice guide. Non-medical prescribers
• RCN. Medicines management subject guide
• RCN. Children and young people: Medicines management subject guide
• RCN. Social prescribing. Find out more about social prescribing and the RCN Congress fringe event on social prescribing

RCN and RPS

• RCN and RPS. Guidance on Prescribing, Dispensing, Supplying and Administration of Medicines (2020). This publication provides information on the Royal College of Nursing and Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s position on the prescribing, dispensing, supplying and administration of medicines. 
• RCN and RPS. Professional guidance on the administration of medicines in healthcare settings (2019) (PDF). This professional guidance has been co-produced by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and provides principles-based guidance to ensure the safe administration of medicines by healthcare professionals. This guidance has been endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)

• RPS Designated Prescribing Practitioner Competency Framework. This new framework will help universities running independent prescribing programmes, NHS trusts and boards with independent prescribers, trainee independent prescribers and experienced independent prescribers to understand the expectations for a DPP through standardised competency descriptors.
• RPS. A Competency Framework for all Prescribers. This framework sets out what good prescribing looks like. It describes the demonstrable knowledge, skills, characteristics, qualities and behaviours for a safe and effective prescribing role.
• RPS. A systems approach to medicines optimisation and pharmacy. This new online guide will help pharmacists to develop the leadership qualities needed to work at local and regional level across different NHS systems in England. 
• RPS. Polypharmacy. Getting our medicines right. This guidance has been endorsed by the RCN. This guidance provides a summary of the scale and complexity of the issue of polypharmacy. It outlines how healthcare professionals, patients and carers can find solutions when polypharmacy causes problems for patients and points to useful resources that can help.
• RPS. Safe and Secure Handling of Medicines (SSHM) (2018). This guidance has been endorsed by the RCN
• RPS. Practical guide for independent prescribers (2018). This guidance has been endorsed by the RCN
• RPS. Medicines optimisation hub (2016)
• RPS. Making the most of your medicines (PDF)
• RPS. Medicines Optimisation (PDF)
• RPS. Professional Guidance for the Procurement and Supply of Specials (PDF)
• RPS. Prescribing Specials Guidance for the prescribers of Specials (PDF).

NICE

• NICE. Medicines and Prescribing Centre provides support for medicines and prescribing
• NICE. Patient Group Directions. Guidance providing good practice recommendations for individual people and organisations involved with PGDs
• NICE. Medicines optimisation – quality standard (QS120) 
• NICE. Controlled drugs: safe use and management (NG46)
• NICE. Evidence search: Prescribing in prison
• NICE. Medicines optimisation: the safe and effective use of medicines to enable the best possible outcomes
• NICE. Medicines adherence: involving patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence
• NICE. Register for Medicines and Prescribing News and Alerts via the NICE website
• NICE. Giving medicines covertly. A quick guide for care home managers and home care managers providing medicines support

Further resources

• All Wales Medicines Strategy Group. Advice on medicines management and prescribing
• British Medical Association. Guidance on prescribing and drug administration in general practice
• Care Quality Commission. Medicine in health and adult social care: learning from risks and sharing good practice for better outcomes. This report describes lessons for better medicines optimisation across health and social care providers and the positive impact of involving pharmacy professionals in health and social care settings
  
• General Medical Council. Good practice in prescribing and managing medicines and devices
• General Pharmaceutical Council. High level principles for good practice in remote consultations and prescribing. This information is for all healthcare professionals with prescribing responsibilities. It sets out the shared high level principles of good practice expected of everyone when consulting and or prescribing remotely from the patient
• King's Fund. Polypharmacy and medicines optimisation: Making it safe and sound
• NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service. This website provides tools and resources to help with decision making around prescribing and the legal frameworks and associated processes in relation to medicines management
• NHS England, Clinical Reference Group. Prison pain formulary, handling Tramadol in Health and Social Justice sites and management of drug dependence in adult prisons. These resources support clinicians prescribing pain medicines in prisons. These resources support clinicians prescribing pain medicines in prisons
• NMC. Code of conduct. The NMC code presents the professional standards that nurses, midwives and nursing associates must uphold in order to be registered to practise in the UK
• NMC. Standards of proficiency for nursing associates. These standards set out what nursing associates know and can do when they join our register
• NMC. Standards for prescribing programmes. Part 3 of Realising professionalism: Standards for education and training
• Scottish Government. Non Medical Prescribing in Scotland: Guidance for Nurse Independent Prescribers and for Community Practitioner Nurse Prescribers in Scotland: A Guide for Implementation
• NHS Scotland. Effective prescribing and therapeutics. Polypharmacy. This provides guidance on preventing inappropriate polypharmacy at every stage of the patient journey. See also links to additional resources.
• RCP. Medication safety at hospital discharge: improvement guide and resource. This guidance has been endorsed by the RCN.