When-required and over-the-counter medicine

A when-required (PRN) medicine is given when a young person needs it, not at a set time. ARC checks each one against its limits before you can record a dose.

Give a when-required dose

1. Open Medication and find When required (PRN) on the right of the round. Use the filters All, Can give now and Given today.
2. Open the young person's medicine. It shows its limits, when it was Last given and what was given in the Last 24 hours.
3. Choose Give a dose.
4. Say why it was given — this is required — check the seven rights, and select Record as given.

The limits are checked across every product with the same ingredient.

If ARC will not let you give it

A medicine can show Too soon until a time, Limit reached today, or Awaiting second check (a second person has not yet checked the prescription). Nothing is recorded and no dose should be given.

If the GP or 111 advises that it should be given:

1. Choose Ask a manager to unlock (or, for an unchecked prescription, Urgent: GP or 111 says give it now).
2. Say who gave the advice — GP or 111 — and what they advised.
3. Select Ask a manager to unlock. ARC tells the manager and deputy.

A manager or deputy opens Waiting on you, chooses Review under Unlock requests, and selects Approve unlock. That unlocks one dose only, for an hour. The medicine then shows Give the unlocked dose. Every unlock becomes a medication error for a manager to review.

Record the effect

After a when-required dose, Record effect appears on the medicine. Choose how it worked and whether any follow-up is needed. It is recorded once and cannot be changed afterwards.

Over-the-counter medicine

Over-the-counter medicines are the ones your GP has signed off for the home. They are given when required, within the dose and limits on the list.

1. On the round, choose Give an over-the-counter medicine (it is also on the young person's medication record).
2. Choose the young person, then the medicine.
3. Record the dose as for any when-required medicine.

A young person with an exclusion shows Must not have and ARC will not let that medicine be given to them. A medicine still waiting for its second check cannot be given yet.

Keep the list

Open Medication, then the Over-the-counter medicine tab.

• Add a medicine records its name, active ingredient, strength, dose, the shortest gap, the most in 24 hours, and the GP who signed it off and when.
• Someone other than the person who added it must check it under Awaiting check. Only then can stock be booked in with Book stock in and the medicine be given.
• A manager or deputy can take a medicine off the list, and lift an exclusion.