Minimising harm from medicines at home (Protocol V1.0)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Minimising harm to infants and young children caused by prescribed medicines administered by parents and caregivers at home (MINIMEDS): A longitudinal qualitative study with families, a qualitative interview study with healthcare professions and a co-design study protocol
IRAS ID
341176
Contact name
Stephen Morris
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
Parents and caregivers are responsible for safely administering prescribed medicines to their children at home. This complex task relies on parents and caregivers to overcome many challenges to administer these medicines safely. The risk of harm from giving medicines in an unsafe way is low, but it can be serious.
Observational data and consultation work with parents and caregivers tell us that more could be done to support them with this task. The concept of resilient healthcare can be used to study how caregivers learn how to give medicines safely. Resilient healthcare is defined as the ability of a person or system to maintain or improve its function despite expected and unexpected disruptions.
The aim of this PhD is to use a resilient healthcare approach to improve the support given to parents and caregivers to safely administer prescribed medicines to their children at home.
This will be achieved by completing a three phases of research. A qualitative study will explore the experiences of parents and caregivers who administer prescribed medicines (Phase 1). A subsequent qualitative study will then explore healthcare professionals understanding of how parents and caregivers are able to safely administer medicines (Phase 2). These studies will then inform a co-design study that will identify how support could be improved (Phase 3).
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
25/WA/0134
Date of REC Opinion
24 Jun 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion