City Research Online

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the teaching of antimicrobial stewardship (AS) in undergraduate healthcare educational degree programmes in the United Kingdom (UK). PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of undergraduate programmes in human and veterinary medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing in the UK. The main outcome measures included prevalence of AS teaching; stewardship principles taught; estimated hours apportioned; mode of content delivery and teaching strategies; evaluation methodologies; and frequency of multidisciplinary learning. RESULTS: 80% (112/140) of programmes responded adequately. The majority of programmes teach AS principles (88/109, 80.7%). 'Adopting necessary infection prevention and control precautions' was the most frequently taught principle (83/88, 94.3%), followed by 'timely collection of microbiological samples for microscopy, culture and sensitivity' (73/88, 82.9%) and 'minimisation of unnecessary antimicrobial prescribing' (72/88, 81.8%). The 'use of intravenous administration only to patients who are severely ill, or unable to tolerate oral treatment' was reported in ~50% of courses. Only 32/88 (36.3%) programmes included all recommended principles. DISCUSSION: Antimicrobial stewardship principles are included in most undergraduate healthcare and veterinary degree programmes in the UK. However, future professionals responsible for using antimicrobials receive disparate education. Education may be boosted by standardisation and strengthening of less frequently discussed principles.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Publisher Keywords:	Anti-Infective Agents; Drug Prescriptions; Education, Medical, Undergraduate; Education, Nursing; Education, Pharmacy; Education, Veterinary; Evidence-Based Medicine; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Time Factors
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General) Q Science > QR Microbiology R Medicine
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Nursing
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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