Impact of Educational Programs on the Knowledge and Attitude of Healthcare Professionals in Antimicrobial Stewardship

Abstract

Introduction:The main concern related to antimicrobial use is the increasing incidence of resistance. Objective: This study aims to assess the impact of educational programs on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare providers concerning antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) in hospitals. Materials and Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with one group pretest-posttest design. Health professionals were requested to complete an online questionnaire before and after educational programs. This is a 2-day workshop conducted through the virtual zoom platform. Results: Regarding the basic prior knowledge, all respondents completely agree that inappropriate use of antibiotics can lead to resistance, can lead to ineffective treatment and burdens patients with additional medical costs and majority agree that inappropriate use of antibiotics can worsen side effects (91.7%). Regarding familiarity of health professionals, very familiar/familiar with the term of antimicrobial stewardship (75.0%), term of antibiotic resistance (86.1%), term of DDD/DOT (52.8%), while the majority of health professionals were not familiar/ not all familiar with the term of antibiogram (66.7%) and Gyssens (55.6%). About the effectiveness of antimicrobial stewardship, all respondents 100% answered that antimicrobial stewardship was effective in reducing resistance and health care costs, improving patient safety (97.2%) and only 11.11% answered not effective to improve outcomes. The level of knowledge of health professionals did not change significantly, but the perception increased significantly after the educational intervention, p-value<0.005. Conclusion: The educational program implemented is effective in improving the attitudes of health professionals about antimicrobial stewardship.

Impact of a pharmacist-led educational intervention on knowledge, attitude, and practice toward the rational use of antibiotics among healthcare workers in a secondary care hospital in Punjab, Pakistan

“…In a study conducted at the National Liver Institute, Egypt, an educational program was offered to healthcare providers as an intervention to the ASP, and improvement in the knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare providers was observed as a result of the intervention (Tahoon et al, 2020). Various other studies have also shown significant improvements in the rational utilization of antibiotics after the educational intervention, particularly led by pharmacists (Monmaturapoj et al, 2021;Lai et al, 2022;Otieno et al, 2022;Xu et al, 2022;Almutairi et al, 2023;Lutfiyati et al, 2023). The ASP requires multidisciplinary healthcare workers to perform as a single unit, and education based on updated information is a requisite for informed decision making (Laxminarayan et al, 2013;Cosgrove et al, 2014).…”