Paediatric National Inpatient Medication Chart
Educational resources
Background
To improve the safety and quality of medicines use nationally, Australian Health Ministers required all public hospitals in Australia to use a common medication chart. The National Inpatient Medication Chart (NIMC) was developed by a multi-disciplinary national working party.
Similarly, a nationally agreed paediatric version has been developed, sharing many features with the original NIMC, but incorporating additional features important for safely using medicines in the paediatric population. Short stay (5 days) and long stay (21 days) versions are available.
Below are a range of education resources for safe prescribing in hospitalised paediatric patients and which will support implementation of the paediatric NIMC. These resources have been developed by multi-disciplinary teams of clinicians (see acknowledgements below) and are designed for use by doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
All facilities caring for paediatric inpatients are invited to use these resources to support the optimal use of the paediatric NIMC for improving paediatric medication safety. We request that you:
- Acknowledge the source;
- Adapt the content to your facility, as some material is specific to Sydney Children’s Hospital and may need modification for other settings;
- Evaluate outcomes (see recommended minimum core parameters)
Paediatric educational resources
- Paediatric NIMC fact sheet (PDF 85 KB)
- Paediatric NIMC PowerPoint presentation (PDF 2400 KB)
Paediatric NIMC PowerPoint presentation with speakers notes(PDF 2325 KB) - Sydney Children’s Hospital safe prescribing guidelines (PDF 48 KB)
- Sydney Children’s Hospital allergy and adverse drug reaction definitions (PDF 52 KB)
- Recording and reporting adverse drug reactions: MEDIscene Feb 2005 (PDF 96 KB)
Frequently asked questions
Links to general resources
- National Prescribing Service (NPS) Medication Chart on-line training module
- National terminology, abbreviations and symbols to be used in the prescribing and administering of medicines in Australian hospitals
- NSW Health Medication Safety Strategy
Feedback
Let us know whether you found the material useful (and why). Suggestions for improvements are very welcome. Please send your feedback to mail@safetyandquality.gov.au.
Acknowledgements
This educational package was developed by
- Dr Madlen Gazarian (Paediatric Clinical Pharmacologist and Head) and
- Ms Linda Graudins (QUM and Medication Safety Pharmacist)
The paediatric resources are based on material originally developed as part of a medication safety improvement program at Sydney Children’s Hospital, with input from the Medication Safety Improvement Project Team and the Adverse Drug Reactions Working Party.
Material from NIMC educational resources available through various state and national bodies (see Links to General Resources) have been incorporated, including material developed by the Pharmacy Department, Children, Youth and Women’s Health Service, Adelaide (Lauren Cortis), whose input is gratefully acknowledged. Multi-disciplinary input from clinicians (including nurse educators, senior pharmacists and Chief Resident Medical Officer) at Sydney Children’s Hospital informed the development of the final package.
This package has been reviewed and approved by members of the Children's Hospitals Australasia Medication Safety Expert Reference Group to support the optimal use of paediatric NIMC to improve paediatric medication safety. Their contribution is gratefully acknowledged.
June 2008
