Pediatric "traffic lights" in pharmacy: warning situations for the community pharmaceutical team.

CONTEXT Community pharmacists play a crucial role in providing proximity care and ensuring patient safety, with legally defined responsibilities in prevention, education, and patient guidance, particularly in pediatrics. Studies underscore the importance of pharmacist advice for parents. Therefore, it is imperative that pharmacists receive proper training in pediatrics to effectively guide patients.

OBJECTIVE To draw up items for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy students to help them in the care of children in community pharmacy. The aim was to provide practical tools to guide patients toward appropriate advice, consultations, or pediatric emergency care.

METHOD After a literature review, we drafted items among pathologies, contexts of pharmaceutical advice, and emergency situations. We classified them into "red lights", corresponding to life-threatening emergency situations requiring urgent treatment, "orange lights", corresponding to relative emergency situations, and "green lights", corresponding to elementary and fundamental rules of good practice. We submitted them to a group of experts from the Société Française de Pédiatrie (SFP) and the Société Française de Pharmacie Clinique (SFPC). Pharmacists and pediatricians from all over France and the French-speaking world were contacted to reach a consensus. A two-round consensus method was carried out from May to July 2023.

RESULTS The 16 experts were 11 pediatricians, 4 pharmacists, and a duo from Quebec, had between 2- and 30-years' experience and came from France, Switzerland, or Canada. From 55-items (35 red, 9 orange and 11 green), the final tool had 53-items (35 red, 7 orange and 11 green). Items were rewritten, added, categorized or retrieved.

CONCLUSION This tool represents a pioneering initiative specifically tailored for community pharmacists in managing pediatric emergencies. The next steps include dissemination, evaluation, and regular updates of the tool, based on user and expert feedback. Community pharmacists are essential players in providing pediatric advice, and this tool should strengthen their capacity to effectively manage a variety of pediatric situations, thus meeting the needs of patients and parents.