A Review on the Role of Community Pharmacists on Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

Abstract

Antibiotics are the "marvel medicines" for fighting bacteria. For the past years, multiple varieties of antibiotics have performed well in combating microbes. However, over time, bacteria have developed a way to counter antimicrobial agents' effects and become resistant to antibiotics. The goal of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of published studies on the role of community pharmacists, as drug experts, in antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs). Thus, a search strategy was employed to gather existing literature using the following databases: Elsevier, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct. The literature retrieved was classified and analyzed according to the perception, knowledge, and practices toward AMS programs. After evaluation, results show that pharmacists are essential when creating and implementing ASPs in inpatient and outpatient settings. They can monitor and report AMS indicators and ensure all legal specifications are followed for accreditation and payment reasons. Most pharmacists always/often dispense antimicrobials with a prescription, evaluate the prescribed antimicrobials if they follow the guidelines, and communicate with prescribers whenever they have difficulty reading the prescription. Additionally, approximately 85% of pharmacists agreed that to enhance the understanding of antimicrobial stewardship, pharmacists should be exposed to relevant workshops and conferences and that “antimicrobial stewardship programs reduce the problem of antimicrobial resistance.” However, the results indicate that appropriate actions are still needed to rationalize antimicrobial use in the future and that more training and access to AMS guidelines are necessary.