Feasibility of developing children's Pill School within a UK hospital

Asia N Rashed, David Terry, Andy Fox, Nanna Christiansen, Stephen Tomlin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the feasibility of introducing an intervention (children's Pill School-PS) within a UK hospital to provide swallowing training for children, identified the proportion of children who can be switched from oral liquid medicines to pills and assessed children/parents' opinions about the PS training.

METHODS: 30 inpatient children (aged 3-18 years; taking oral liquid medicines; their liquid medications assessed suitable for switching to pills; can (and their parents) speak/understand English were included. Training sessions were delivered using hard sweets of different sizes.

RESULTS: 87% (26) of children successfully learnt how to swallow pills after one training session (mean duration 14.5 min), and 92% (24) were discharged on pills. 75 prescribed oral liquid medications were deemed suitable for switching to pills. Of these, 89% (67) were switched successfully.

CONCLUSION: Children as young as 3 years were successful in swallowing pills after training. Providing children PS training session within hospital is feasible and acceptable to children and their parents.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)705-708
Number of pages4
JournalArchives of Disease in Childhood
Volume106
Issue number7
Early online date23 Nov 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Keywords

  • health services research
  • pharmacology
  • therapeutics
  • Prospective Studies
  • Deglutition/physiology
  • Administration, Oral
  • Education/methods
  • Humans
  • Patient Education as Topic/methods
  • Child, Preschool
  • United Kingdom/epidemiology
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Schools/statistics & numerical data
  • Adolescent
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations/administration & dosage
  • Pharmaceutical Solutions/administration & dosage
  • Tablets/administration & dosage
  • Hospitals/statistics & numerical data
  • Child
  • Parents/education
  • Inpatients/education

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