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Domain 7
Patient Safety,
including Safe Prescribing

As an overarching principle, HK Doctors document stated :

"It is the duty of the Medical Council to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring the professional standard of registered medical practitioners. A high standard of medical education is required to meet the needs of the public. Patient safety must be the overriding priority at all stages of medical education and training. A doctor practising safe medicine must also be an ethical doctor."

Basic Training

Learning Objectives

  1. Understand the importance of patient safety and apply its principles in child safety, namely sedation and procedural safety and injury prevention.

  2.  Select and prescribe common medications safely and appropriately for CYP.

Key Capabilities

  1. Apply the prevailing guidelines in drug prescription.

  2.  Educate CYP on the safe use of medicine and their side effects

Illustrations

  1. Prescribe appropriate fluid therapy for newborns to young adults

  2. Prescribing antibiotics rationally and understand antibiotics stewardship programme.

  3. Prescribing sedatives, analgesics and opioids safely

  4. Practice measures to reduce prescription and medication errors (e.g. writing legibly, avoid unconventional abbreviations)

  5. Be knowledgeable of drug interactions of commonly used drugs

  6. Uses therapeutic drug monitoring to adjust dosing schedules.

  7. Familiarize the common side effects of common prescribed drugs

  8. Prescribe medications to CYP with an understanding of the pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenetics, dose calculation and dosage adjustment in renal and liver impairment.

  9. Understand the effect of maternal drugs on infants receiving breast milk.

  10. Safely prescribe parenteral nutrition

Higher Training

Learning Objectives

  1. Identify, report, investigate and mitigate actual and potential risks in clinical management

Key Capabilities

  1. Perform risk reporting and participate in the investigation and mitigation using the existing mechanisms

  2. Counsel CYP and the family on the safety implications of drug compliance and handle complicated compliance issues

Illustrations

  1. Demonstrates a working knowledge of risk assessment and its application

  2. Applies local policies for risk reporting.

  3. Effectively manages a complaint and learns from clinical errors.

  4. Discussion with CYP & family (especially chronic disease on medications) the importance of compliance, common side effects, and way for communication once problem encountered

  5. Understand idiosyncratic drug reactions like exanthematous drug eruption associated with antiepileptic drugs and antimicrobials.

  6. Carry out investigations of medication errors

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