About the KidzMed programme

Kidzmed is a programme developed for members of the multidisciplinary team to teach children and young people how to swallow pills. It was set up at the Great North Children’s Hospital, Newcastle, and has won the NHS Sustainability Award, the HSJ Value Award for Pharmacy and Optimisation and the Bright Ideas in Health Award for Demonstrating an Impact upon Quality Improvement. The 15-minute elearning session is for all health and care professionals who want to teach children and young people how to swallow pills using an evidence-based, six-step technique.

More information

Pills have numerous advantages over suspensions for all parties concerned:

• For children and young people: pills are less sickly, contain less sugar and children who swallow pills tend to have better adherence to their medication regimens
• For carers: pills have a longer shelf-life, do not require a fridge for storage, are easier to transport and more readily available in local pharmacies
• For prescribers : less prone to errors when writing prescriptions and can prescribe larger quantities
• For pharmacists: pills are more commonly stocked in local pharmacies compared to suspensions

For the reasons above, and because most medicines are in pill form, swallowing pills is an important life skill for children to learn, an elearning session has been developed to help healthcare professionals and carers  teach children and young people how to swallow pills. In addition, this website contains resources to accompany the elearning session to help you set up pill swallowing training at your local centre.

Resources

• Pill swallowing technique comic
  • Here you can download our comic illustrating our six-step pill-swallowing technique in multiple languages

• Certificate for children
  • Download a certificate to give to children upon completion of their pill swallowing training

• Leaflet for carers
  • Download a leaflet to give to carers to assist with practising pill swallowing at home. It is useful to run through this leaflet with carers when initially counselling them.

• Podcasts – (coming soon)
  • Listen to our podcasts covering pill swallowing in more depth – a fantastic extension to our elearning session for those who want to know more.

How to access

In order to access the The KidzMed project programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.

Register >

To view the The KidzMed project programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

View >

Not an NHS organisation?

If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the The KidzMed project programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.