Florence Saddler
Queen Alexandra Hospital
Title: Education of Antimicrobial Stewardship: Teaching Methods and their Effectiveness
Biography
Biography: Florence Saddler
Abstract
Each year thousands of lives are lost due to antibiotic-resistant infections. In order to combat the alarming rise in antibiotic resistance in the UK, guidance has been published by organisations such as the World Health Organisation and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence to help govern the use of antibiotics (see separate reference doc). In 2018 our team conducted an audit investigating antimicrobial stewardship on the general surgical wards at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth. This demonstrated poor compliance to the national guidance in the UK on safe antimicrobial prescribing. Our initial intervention was creating posters on the correct procedure of prescribing antibiotics in key clinical areas to promote good practice. A re-audit showed a minor improvement in compliance however this was not significant and consequently we looked into different ways of changing clinical practice. We chose to explore whether educating the prescribers about the importance of antibiotic stewardship and the clinical significance of that would be a more effective method of changing practice.