Exploring the discord between pharmacy education and practice in antimicrobial stewardship

Health SA Gesondheid

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Exploring the discord between pharmacy education and practice in antimicrobial stewardship
 
Creator Chetty, Devina Leigh-de Rapper, Stephanie
 
Subject Pharmacy; Clinical Pharmacy antimicrobial stewardship; knowledge; perceptions; clinical pharmacists; pharmacy; education
Description Background: Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is a critical global intervention aimed at optimising antimicrobial use and decreasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with pharmacists playing a pivotal role within AMS teams. However, AMS is not comprehensively taught in pharmacy curricula and little is known about the relevance of pharmacists’ training to meet AMS needs in South Africa.Aim: This study aimed to explore the attitudes, knowledge and perceptions of clinical pharmacists towards AMS participation and training in South Africa.Setting: This study was conducted among clinically practicing pharmacists in public and private healthcare sectors in South Africa.Methods: A quantitative exploratory research design was selected for this study. The study was conducted using a self-administered structured survey. Categorical variables were analysed using simple descriptive statistics. Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests were applied to determine differences between variables.Results: Pharmacists demonstrated good attitudes knowledge and perceptions towards AMS (median 4.3). There was statistical significant differences in AMS participation between pharmacists of different years of experience (p = 0.005), sector of employment (p = 0.01), position of employment (p = 0.015) and presence of AMS programmes (p = 0.004). Pharmacists indicated that their Bachelor of Pharmacy undergraduate studies inadequately prepared them for their role in AMS (median 4.3).Conclusion: Pharmacists show positive attitudes, knowledge and perceptions towards AMS. Education and training in AMS principles is obtained through master’s programmes, short courses, Continued Professional Development (CPDs) and workshops and insufficiently incorporated in undergraduate programmes.Contribution: This study confirms that undergraduate pharmacy programmes inadequately prepare pharmacists for their role in AMS.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2023-02-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Survey; Quantitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hsag.v28i0.2114
 
Source Health SA Gesondheid; Vol 28 (2023); 10 pages 2071-9736 1025-9848
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/2114/html https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/2114/epub https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/2114/xml https://hsag.co.za/index.php/hsag/article/view/2114/pdf
 
Coverage South Africa 2021-2022 —
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Devina Chetty, Stephanie Leigh-de Rapper https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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