Describe the roles and responsibilities with regard to the administration of medicines in a health and social care setting

Verbal orders:  The doctor might change an individual’s dose of their medication and halfway through their treatment. This would be done verbally and the doctor might not write a second prescription. The care setting should provide a template to record the information provided by the doctor or nurse, it is vital that the information is recorded accurately and should be repeated to the doctor or nurse to make sure that it is recorder correctly or the voice of the Doctor can be recorded. The information then should written up within the MRA chart, signed and dated. The information should be checked if it is accurate by a second member of staff and sign it confirm. It is important that the written confirmation is always written of any dose change following a verbal instruction as soon as possible, for example, a fax from the doctor detailing the dose change.

• Verbal orders should include:
• Date and time
• Doctors name
• Individuals name
• Name of the medicine
• New dose and frequency
• Any special instructions
• Name of the person who recorded the information
• Name of the 2nd person who checked the information

Confidentiality: Health and social care workers most keep service user’s information confidential. They should not talk about the patient’s medical condition or anything regarding the patient personal information. They should only have a discussion about the patient’s condition to the health care professionals that are involved within the individuals care otherwise this information should not be given to anyone else. The information can be passed on to others if the patient gives a written permission to named people that can know of his/her medical condition. It is the health care professional’s duty to be responsible of maintaining the confidentiality of the service users. Gossiping about patients can lead to major consequences such as being charged or sacked from the workplace. If an individual is not capable of making decisions for themselves about their care and treatment then an advocate can be employed to take responsibility for making decisions on the patient’s behalf.

Prescriber: a prescriber is the person who can by law diagnose and prescribe medications. Health care professions such as doctors, general practitioner (GP), dentists and some nurses.

Pharmacist: The role of pharmacist is administering and selling medicines. They also have a role in giving people advice and information on health.

District or community nurse: The role of the district nurse involves assessing the needs of their patients and monitoring their progress, giving medical assistance for example cleaning and dressing wounds to people who live within the community. They can also administrate medicines to patients support and encourage patients to care for themselves and working with other health professionals to make sure the patients receive the support they need. They are also able to prescribe some medicines.

Registered manager: Registered manager are in charge for any action that happens within the care service that is registered under the care standards act. This includes all the processes that happen regarding medication.

Social care staff: social care staff can administer the medicine in care services without nursing. They take responsibility for some tasks such as: Ordering, receipt and storage disposal of medicines

Designated member of staff: These individuals are responsible for the whole process of medicine management in the care service

Ancillary staff: These are normally the untrained staffs that have no responsibility for medicine management. Some may undertake personal care which may involve application of creams. It is important that they are trained before they undertake the tasks.

Clerical staff / administrators: They deal with MAR [medication administration records] charts, arranging doctor’s appointment and training sessions and other routine clerical work. They would not be expected to handle any medication.