7.4 The Aural Apothecary Analyses! When Guidelines Go Wrong - A Medicines Safety Special with Dr Matthew Jones and Angela Carrington
Healthcare professionals rely on guidelines to help them make the right choices. But do they work? Is the way we write and use guidance in practice actually harming patients?
Welcome to the second in our series of ‘The Aural Apothecary Analyses’, where we will be delving a bit deeper into some of the recurring themes from our first series. This week we are joined by Dr Matthew Jones and Angela Carrington to discuss medicines safety and how we can help clinicians & patients make better decisions.
Healthcare professionals rely on guidelines to help them make the right choices. But do they work? Is the way we write and use guidance in practice actually harming patients? And what can we do about it? Join us as we discuss the balance between prescriptive guidance and the flexibility required to navigate complex systems, all while considering the critical role guidelines play in providing assurance and safety in healthcare.
Angela will be well known to regular listeners, featuring as a guest in series 1. She is Lead Pharmacist for Medication Safety, Health and Social Care Northern Ireland and a Human Factors enthusiast. Mathew is a senior lecturer in medicines safety, medicines information and pharmaceutics at the University of Bath. He has coordinated the development of the South West Pharmacy Research Network and is the co-author of our discussion paper today - “Exploring the Role of Guidelines in Contributing to Medication Errors” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10954937/
In our discussion we dig into the role of guidelines and their real-world impact on patient care. From the pitfalls of laminating to the importance of user-testing, we explore how the design and writing of guidance can influence outcomes - sometimes with unintended consequences. Do digital systems actually make things better? Are guidelines themselves contributing to errors? And how can human factors expertise improve how clinicians interact with these tools in practice?
As well as getting deep into the issue of medicines safety we also ask the important question - why on earth would anyone put mouthwash in a public toilet? Tune in to find out more on this important topic…
As with all of our guests, Matthew shares with us his Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book that has influenced his career or life.
Angela has already shared her choices in a previous episode which you can find our more about here where we discuss Medicines Safety in more detail and the World Health Organisations ‘Medicines Safety Challenge’ https://www.theauralapothecary.com/episode-9-angela-carrington-the-world-health-organisations-medicines-safety-challenge/
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