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Simon Wills, PhD, MRPharmS, is director of the Wessex
Drug and Medicines Information Centre, Southampton University Hospitals
NHS Trust.
Fran Campbell, BSc, RGN, is a nurse at NHS Direct Hampshire & Isle
of Wight.
Correspondence to: Dr Wills at Wessex Drug & Medicines
Information Centre, Mailpoint 31, Southampton General Hospital,
Southampton
SO16 6YD
e-mail simon.wills@suht.swest.nhs.uk |
Abstract
Aim
To evaluate the impact of written answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about medicines, prepared by pharmacists, for NHS Direct nurses to use when answering calls about medicines from members of the public.
Design
Questionnaire.
Subjects and setting
NHS Direct staff at two pilot sites.
Results
159 questionnaires were returned by NHS Direct staff who had used FAQs.
more than 90% reported that FAQs were useful for answering the enquiries
they received, saved them time, and were presented well. A number of future
FAQ topics were also identified.
Conclusions
This successful pilot project has enabled FAQs to be made available to
all NHS Direct sites in England and Wales. UK medicines information pharmacists
are working with NHS Direct to identify and prepare answers to other FAQ
topics, and to produce patient-friendly versions for the NHS Direct website.
This project highlights the value of multidisciplinary working.
Full text article PDF (60K)
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal