Poison centre notification (PCN) practicalities

Poison centre notification (PCN) practicalities.

Introduction

Whilst it is recognised that it is possible to get more interaction out of face-to-face training or to have better discussion during on-site meetings, it has been shown that remote meetings online can also have advantages. One key advantage found in on-line meetings is that colleagues from outside of Europe can join in and not be at a disadvantage to those in the room. By ensuring meetings are held at convenient times, global attendance is possible – our trainers have also undertaken meetings in the evening (UK time) to suit those from much further afield.

One general rule found to be important when meeting on-line is to limit the length of sessions and have breaks from the screen. For this reason, many full-day training events and meetings have been split over two days, and this itself brings additional advantages, allowing those in the meeting to have internal discussions and return on the second day with more focused questions or to ask for certain topics to be explained in more detail.

One recent example of online support is described below.

Poison centre notification (PCN) practicalities

For those needing to prepare and submit dossiers for PCN there is, to be blunt, a lot of work to do. Much of this work is not technically demanding and is administrative and once (reference) substance files have been compiled, it is a case of merging the substances into mixtures. As complicated as it may look, the use of IUCLID software and the submission portal is not difficult once the basics of the software and associated systems are mastered. This can be done after just 3-4 hours of training.

Again, by splitting a full day into two sessions, the ‘theory’ work with demonstration on how to use the software (utilising a screen share facility) can be covered in a morning session and before a second, more advanced session, those taking part can practice and enter more examples in their own time.

Those who have been shown how to do this are typically reassured that it is not as difficult as first feared and realise that completing this work in-house is probably better than having to give all the data to those offering external support. Even those who will be contracting out this work, e.g. those with a lack of internal resource, reported that they feel more able to ensure that the external contractor receives the best information to make the process as efficient as possible.