Aim To improve the quality of handwritten antibiotic prescriptions at the Paediatric ward of Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

Method

1. Data were collected prospectively by Microsoft Excel of all antibiotic prescriptions in May 2021 for an audit to see the baseline.

2. Quality improvement project launched with teaching session for all junior doctors with pharmacists about aim and plan with prescription MAT and with the announcement of high achievement award for the best prescriber with a chocolate box gift and a certificate. Later, for the wonderful participation, another handmade gift was announced for the best prescriber.

3. Every 2 weekly, the progress was checked and the marking of all prescriptions was done.

4. After 1st cycle there was a drop in the percentage of compliance in a few sections so the strategy was planned to remind the juniors at the hand over time, also by Whatsapp group and personal emails. Also, it was promised to arrange a meet up to give gifts to the winners.

5. 5 . After the 2nd cycle, improvements can be seen in all fields and there was very little to improve so the strategy was to announce 2 handmade gifts to the 2 best prescribers in the last cycle who will get 10 out of 10 marks to get a star. A Star chart was implemented.

6. Finally, after a wonderful outcome each and individual who participated in the project was given one small handmade gift as a token of appreciation alongside all the winners gifts.

Results We can see a huge improvement in all sections except the section of the pharmacist that could not be improved in 3 months duration of this project for staffing issues.

Conclusion This project is hugely successful with a happy experience for all by the personal touch and by the appreciation of the efforts of Juniors in the department and also by flexibly changing strategies as per requirements.