Evaluating UK Pharmacy Workers’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour towards Antimicrobial Stewardship and Assessing the Impact of Training in Community Pharmacy

Abstract

The Antibiotic Guardian (AG) campaign, developed in 2014 is an online ‘pledge’ approach to engage health workers and the public about antimicrobial resistance. It is underpinned by models of science communication and behaviour change. Since its launch until the end of 2021, more than 140,000 individuals pledged. A service evaluation was conducted to determine the impact of the campaign upon UK pharmacy workers, in response to national training introduced in 2020. Pledged pharmacy workers were sent an online questionnaire collating demographics, self-reported behaviour and opportunity to support prudent antibiotic use. It also investigated respondents’ daily practice and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) efforts, and motivations for pledging. Capability was measured with a set of knowledge questions. Awareness of changes to the Community Pharmacy Quality Scheme in England to include incentivized training on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was explored. Of the 5344 pharmacy workers invited to participate, 783 (14.6%) responded to the survey. There was a statistically significant difference between job roles and capability score. Pharmacists, including Academic and Hospital Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians reported higher confidence and capability scores than Dispensers and Pharmacy Assistants (F = 13.776, p = 0.0002). Respondents reported strong knowledge on antimicrobial resistance and high confidence in fulfilling their AG stewardship pledge within daily practices (92.7% of all respondents answered all capability questions, as measured by knowledge, correctly). Two thirds of respondents (61.6% (423/693)) agreed or strongly agreed that they had access to and were able to utilise local antibiotic prescribing guidance and a similar proportion of responding community pharmacists (60%) were aware of the content of their workplace AMS plans. No statistically significant relationships were found between motivations for pledging and subsequent behaviour; pledging due to mandatory requirements of work-place training was the most common answer in both 2019 (42%) and 2020 (54%) cohorts. This evaluation supports the value of the AG pledge-based approach to engage and educate pharmacy workers. Reflections show its impact on increasing evidence-based stewardship for pharmacy workers and their response to mandatory training requirement by employers highlights the effectiveness of the AG campaign to promote AMS within pharmacy teams.

The National Implementation of a Community Pharmacy Antimicrobial Stewardship Intervention (PAMSI) through the English Pharmacy Quality Scheme 2020 to 2022

“…Qualitative research in France and a UK survey of pharmacy professionals who had pledged to be an Antibiotic Guardian found good knowledge of AMR and motivation to engage in AMS initiatives [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]. The Antibiotic Guardian survey found significant differences in knowledge of AMR depending on job roles, with pharmacists scoring higher and dispensing staff lower [ 27 ]. This suggests some targeted training for different members of teams may be needed to ensure whole team capability for AMS.…”

“…This suggests some targeted training for different members of teams may be needed to ensure whole team capability for AMS. The PQS requirement was the highest motivation for community pharmacy staff to pledge to the Antibiotic Guardian campaign; however, the researchers found no significant difference in reported AMS behaviour compared with those who had chosen to pledge of their own volition [ 27 ]. This suggests that despite the PQS being an incentive scheme, pharmacy staff are engaging fully with the activities, which is supported through our findings that 44% participated at levels above the requirements.…”

“…Allergies were the second most common reason for the pharmacy team to contact a prescriber in our study. The role of pharmacy staff in checking patient allergies and interactions is well recognised [ 5 , 27 ]. As the TARGET Antibiotic Checklist asks the patient to report an allergy, there is potential for errors; however, the pharmacist can, in most cases, check the summary care record or patient medication record to confirm the allergy.…”

Antibiotic Prescribing Pattern: Pharmacy Staff Knowledge about Antibiotics at Primary Health Care Centers in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia

“…It might be the first pilot study done at the Primary Healthcare Center because most previous studies were conducted at hospitals or community pharmacies. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] The reliability test was medium, related to a small sample of participants.…”

“…Various studies have been conducted on the rational usage knowledge of pharmacists at hospitals and primary healthcare facilities. [9][10][11] However, evaluating pharmacist and pharmacy technician knowledge background of rational usages of antibiotics is rarely found locally. [12][13][14][15][16][17] The authors were unfamiliar with previous research on the current topics published earlier.…”