Use and Opinions of Care Home Medicines Audit Tools

The prescribing of medicines is the most frequent health intervention in England. The administration or omission of medicines is not without risk and incidents involving medicines occur. The frequency of prescribing medicines increases with age and frailty. People living in care homes (with and without nursing) are generally older and more frail than similar groups in the community. Therefore, care homes and their staff need to be proficient and safe when administering medicines. However, an under investigated area of prescribed medicines is the views of people living in care homes, health and social care staff, commissioners and regulator about managing medicines in care homes. During the study a series of semi-structured interviews and focus groups will be undertaken. These focus groups will be held with people living in care homes (with and without nursing). Further interviews and focus groups will be held with health and social care staff, commissioners and regulators. Care homes will be invited to provide copies of their current medicines monitoring tool. In addition, services supporting care homes including community pharmacies will also be invited to provide copies of their current medicines monitoring tools. Analysis of conversations and monitoring tools made available to the study team will be undertaken and compared to published literature including grey literature.