AN AUDIT OF WHETHER PRESCRIBED DOSES ARE MEASURABLE ON THE GRADUATIONS OF ONE ORAL SYRINGE.

This audit has shown that by prescribing accurately as mg/kg without any dose rounding almost a quarter of doses cannot be measured accurately. Only a small dose adjustment is required to make the doses measurable. The current electronic prescribing system in use does not appear to have any automatic rounding, indeed the prevalence of difficult to measure doses was slightly worse (although not statistically significant, p value 0.19, Chi squared test), possibly because the prescriber doesn't "sense check" what they are prescribing as it is automated. Particular drugs with unusual strengths are often implicated in having harder to measure doses. Consideration should be made to round doses when prescribing and to add information regarding the strength of liquids available in local clinical guidelines.