Knowledge and Attitudes of Doctor of Pharmacy Students Regarding the Appropriate Use of Antimicrobials

Abstract

Pharmacists are key partners in antimicrobial stewardship efforts, yet their degree of education on and attitudes toward this topic during training are not well documented. An electronic survey measuring knowledge and attitudes regarding antimicrobial use and resistance was administered to graduating pharmacy students at 12 US schools of pharmacy. Of 1445 pharmacy students, 579 (40%) completed the survey. The vast majority (94%) believed that strong knowledge of antimicrobials was important for their pharmacy careers, and 89% desired more education on appropriate antimicrobial use. Most students (84%) considered their pharmacy education regarding antimicrobials useful or very useful, but there was significant variability on perceptions of preparation for most antimicrobial stewardship activities according to the students' school. The mean number of correct answers on a section of 11 knowledge questions was 5.8 (standard deviation 2.0; P value for score between schools <.001). On multivariable linear regression analysis, significant predictors of a higher knowledge score were pharmacy school attended, planned postgraduate training, completion of a clinical rotation in infectious diseases, perception of pharmacy school education as useful, use of resources to answer the knowledge questions, and use of Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines and smartphone applications as frequent resources for learning about antimicrobials. Pharmacy students perceive antimicrobial stewardship to be an important healthcare issue and desire more education on the subject. Student perceptions of antimicrobial coursework and actual antimicrobial knowledge scores significantly varied by the school of pharmacy attended. Sharing of best practices among institutions may enhance the preparation of future pharmacists to contribute to effective antimicrobial stewardship.

Veterinary Medical Students’ Perceptions, Attitude and Knowledge about Antibiotic Resistance and Stewardship: How Prepared Are Our Future Prescribers?

“…Answers to questions that used a 5-point Likert scale were merged into two dichotonomous categories (strongly agree/agree and strongly disagree/disagree/neutral, often/occasionally/sometimes and rarely/never, very good/good and poor/very poor/neutral) (Abbo et al, 2013;Justo et al, 2014;Yang et al 2016). Data were entered into Microsoft Excel sheet version 15.0 and exported to SPSS version 15.0 for analysis.…”

“…The surveys were administered to final-year VM students during whole class lectures at the participating veterinary schools. The students were instructed to abstain from using resources or consulting peers in filling the survey (Thriemer et al, 2013;Justo et al, 2014;Wasserman et al, 2017). They were also asked to fill the questionnaires on-site within 4 hours to ensure that consultation of resources and peers are precluded (Thriemer et al, 2013).…”

Preventing the Post-Antibiotic Era by Training Future Pharmacists as Antimicrobial Stewards

“…15 These future pharmacists planned on practicing in varied patient care settings, with 53% of respondents planning on entering practice immediately after graduation. Among respondents, the vast majority (94%) believed strong knowledge of antimicrobials was important for their pharmacy careers and more than 80% desired more education on antimicrobial resistance and appropriate use of antimicrobials.…”

An Elective Course on Antimicrobial Stewardship

“…In a survey of 579 final-year doctor of pharmacy students representing 12 US schools of pharmacy, Justo et al attempted to characterize pharmacy student knowledge and perceptions of antimicrobial use. 10 Respondents perceived AS as an important health care issue and desired to learn more about the topic, but achieved low knowledge scores. Such data support the need for greater AS education in pharmacy curricula, and the authors suggested opportunities to improve professional pharmacy curricula related to antimicrobial use.…”

“…Documents provided by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, Center for Advancement of Pharmacy Education, and American College of Clinical Pharmacy provide recommendations on general ID-related educational outcomes, but do not specifically include the term "antimicrobial stewardship." [8][9][10] The principles of AS extend beyond general ID and include particular attention to system-based variables that may affect an intended intervention's outcome (eg, information technology capabilities, interprofessional relationships or supply chain management practices). Although AS is not synonymous with general ID, AS has emerged as an essential component of ID patient care.…”