Introduction - A review of current clinical practice around the prescribing of emergency medications(EM) for prolonged seizures and whether parents, who have been trained, give and use it correctly.

Method - Data was collected prospectively for 6 months from a nurse led clinic in a paediatric tertiary care centre in South East Scotland. Using an audit questionnaire each patient attending the clinic had their EM prescription reviewed and assessed against the in-house EM prescribing pathway. Families were asked if they had used EM and were assessed on demontrating administration techniques.

Results - 49 patients were prescribed EM for prolonged seizures. 47(96%) patients were admitted to hospital for prolonged seizures prior to prescription of EM and only 23(47%) patients were admitted following prescription of EM. 48(98%) patients had been prescribed EM appropriately for prolonged seizures with 1 innapropriately prescribed and only 34(71%) had careplans completed. All parents had been taught administration technique, only 39(79%)were able to demonstrate the correct technique to deliver the child's prescribed EM. 29(59%) parents reported using it when required, where they would have otherwise called an ambulance, with 4 choosing not to use it and 16 unknown as it had not yet been required.

Conclusion - Emergency medication for prolonged seizures is generally prescribed appropriately, reduces the number of calls for an ambulance but not all parents can correctly demonstrate the technique of administering emergency medication.