Background.Inappropriate antimicrobial use can threaten patient safety and is the focus of collaborative physician and pharmacist antimicrobial stewardship teams. However, antimicrobial stewardship is not comprehensively taught in medical or pharmacy school curricula. Addressing this deficiency can teach an important concept as well as model interprofessional healthcare.Methods.We created an antimicrobial stewardship curriculum consisting of an online learning module and workshop session that combined medical and pharmacy students, with faculty from both professions. Learners worked through interactive, branched-logic clinical cases relating to appropriate antimicrobial use. We surveyed participants before and after the curriculum using validated questions to assess knowledge and attitudes regarding antimicrobial stewardship and interprofessional collaboration. Results were analyzed using paired χ2 and t tests and mixed-effects logistic regression.Results.Analysis was performed with the 745 students (425 medical students, 320 pharmacy students) who completed both pre- and postcurriculum surveys over 3 years. After completing the curriculum, significantly more students perceived that they were able to describe the role of each profession in appropriate antimicrobial use (34% vs 82%, P < .001), communicate in a manner that engaged the interprofessional team (75% vs 94%, P < .001), and describe collaborative approaches to appropriate antimicrobial use (49% vs 92%, P < .001). Student favorability ratings were high for the online learning module (85%) and small group workshop (93%).Conclusions.A curriculum on antimicrobial stewardship consisting of independent learning and an interprofessional workshop significantly increased knowledge and attitudes towards collaborative antimicrobial stewardship among preclinical medical and pharmacy students.
Background. Antibiotic misuse can have serious effects on patient safety and is addressed in the health care setting by physician and pharmacist run teams. However, this is not comprehensively taught in the medical or pharmacy school curricula. Addressing this deficiency can teach an important concept as well as model interprofessional health care.Methods. We created an online learning module, as well as branched logic interactive clinical cases for a subsequent small group session that combined pre-clinical medicine and pharmacy learners, with faculty from both schools. We used validated questions to assess knowledge and attitudes regarding antimicrobial stewardship and interprofessionalism. We used paired t-test and chi-squared tests to assess differences before and after the small group session.Results. 280 second-year medical and third-year pharmacy students enrolled, 91% participated in the study. 90% and 93% agreed or strongly agreed that the online and small group activities were a valuable learning experience. Compared to pre-module knowledge and attitudes, there was no change (P > 0.20) in whether students believed that antibiotic resistance is a major public health problem (99% vs 100%), or whether only the needs of the individual patient should be considered when prescribing antibiotics (27% vs 29%). There was a higher proportion of students who were able to describe the role of each profession in appropriate antibiotic use (36% vs 81%, P < 0.001), communicate in a manner that engages the interprofessional team (77% vs 96%, P < 0.001), and describe collaborative approaches to appropriate antibiotic use (47% vs 89%, P < 0.001).Conclusion. An interprofessional health education (IPE) curriculum that models an authentic work experience can be successfully developed and implemented in preclinical curriculum. Students have a good knowledge base of antimicrobial stewardship concepts even before completing the module. However, combining two professional schools for a coordinated IPE curriculum substantially improves knowledge and attitudes in interprofessional domains. Future studies that link IPE attitudes to patient safety outcomes are needed to continue to inform IPE curricular interventions in pre-clinical education.
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