Pharmacy Students’ Knowledge and Perceptions about Antimicrobial Stewardship

Abstract

Introduction: Antibiotic resistance is considered one of the serious threats to global public health. Antimicrobial stewardship programs should be implemented by all hospitals to improve antimicrobial use. It is important that pharmacy students have a sound knowledge of antimicrobial stewardship.
 Objective: The aim of this study was to determine pharmacy students’ knowledge and perceptions about antimicrobial stewardship.
 Methodology: The study included a questionnaire that was used to assess the background knowledge of pharmacy students and their perceptions on antimicrobial stewardship.
 Results and Discussion: Out of 103 students who completed the survey, 25 students (24.27%) reported that they know what antimicrobial Stewardship is, and only 39 students were familiar with antimicrobial stewardship programs in Saudi Arabia. Most of the students (95.14%) reported that they need more antimicrobial stewardship training.
 Conclusion: Our results, therefore, recommend that pharmacy students should have more training on bacterial resistance, antibiotic use and antimicrobial stewardship.

The knowledge and perception of pharmacy students and recent graduates in IPSF toward antimicrobial stewardship

“…A total of 92.9% disagreed with involving only doctors in antimicrobial stewardship, with 97.8% indicating that pharmacists have a key role to play in AMS and 98.5% indicating that knowledge of AMS is important in their pharmacy careers. Results from this study correlate with that of other studies in which 99% of master of pharmacy students in the United States, 94% of doctor of pharmacy students in the United States, 98.5% of pharmacy students in South Africa, 100% of pharmacy students in Saudi Arabia, and 92% of medical students indicated that good knowledge on antimicrobials prescribing is relevant in their careers (Abbo et al, 2013;Justo et al, 2014;Burger et al, 2016;Inácio et al, 2017;Ahmed et al, 2019).…”

“…Some of these interventions include raising awareness of AMR, establishing appropriate evidence-based antimicrobial prescribing, formulary restrictions, restrictive antimicrobial use, infection prevention and control, AMR surveillance, reporting and monitoring, professional education, regulating antimicrobial marketing and advertising, and research into new diagnostic tools, vaccines and antimicrobials (WHO, 2015; Antimicrobial stewardship from principles to practice, 2018; Majumder et al, 2021). These interventions should be implemented in all health care facilities, including community pharmacies, outpatient clinics and nursing homes (Antimicrobial stewardship from principles to practice, 2018; Ahmed et al, 2019). When asked about the purchase of antibiotics, 89.9% of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that antibiotics should not be purchased without a prescription and 81.1% agreed/strongly agreed to restrict the use of selected antimicrobials to preserve their efficacy.…”

Investigating Knowledge of Antibiotics, Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Stewardship Concepts Among Final Year Undergraduate Pharmacy Students in Northern Nigeria

“… 14 , 15 In addition, a lot of the study’s’ respondents could identify measures that could be used to combat antimicrobial resistance. Other studies, 14 , 20 have also reported similar findings. Despite this, several of our respondents demonstrated significant knowledge gaps with respect to AMR.…”

“…However, majority of these respondents could correctly identify AMS’s goals, scope, objectives, the role of pharmacists with respect to AMS and members of the AMS team. Different findings were reported from a study by Ahmed et al, 20 where most of their study population was also not aware of the concept of antimicrobial stewardship, likely due to its lack of inclusion in their curriculum. Another study conducted in South Africa by Burger et al however reported that most of their study population were aware of the AMS concept and could identify the goals of AMS.…”

Mapping knowledge and comprehension of antimicrobial stewardship and biosecurity among veterinary students

“…In Australia, one survey [39] has shown that more than 80% of veterinary students, while another study [74] has shown that more than 60% of them perceived that statement. Contrary, in Nigeria a very low percentage of veterinary students (13.1%) [75] and veterinarians (17.1%) [76] have heard about AMS, as well as only about 24% of pharmacy students in Saudi Arabia [77]. Having appropriate knowledge on AMS at the undergraduate level could insure AMS implementation in future work of veterinarians.…”