Antibiotic Stewardship Flashcards
Describe the UK Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy (2013)
- Improving infection prevention and control practices through enhanced dissemination and implementation of best practice and better use of data and diagnostics.
- Optimising prescribing practice through AMS programmes that promote rational prescribing and better use of existing and new rapid diagnostics
- Improving professional education, training and public engagement to enhance clinical practice and promote wider understanding of the need for more sustainable use of antibiotics
- Developing new drugs, treatments and diagnostics through better collaboration
- Better access to and use of surveillance data in human and animal sectors
- Better identification and prioritisation of AMR research needs
- Strengthened international collaboration, working with a wide range of governmental and non-governmental organisations, international regulatory bodies and others.
Define antimicrobial stewardship
= systematic effort to educate and persuade prescribers of antimicrobials to follow evidence-based prescribing in order to reduce antibiotic overuse and thus antimicrobial resistance.
What are the principles of antibiotic stewardship?
Minimising use of Abx in hospital
Cheapest Abx that will be effective
Not prescribing for viral illness
Evidence based decisions
Restricting antibiotic prescribing to ‘antibiotic stewards’
Stopping Abx being available OTC
Finishing the course of an antibiotic
Describe the appropriate process of deciding whether to prescribe antibiotics upon initial patient assessment
Describe the process of deciding whether to prescribe antibiotics in a 48 hour post admission assessment
List common situations where antimicrobial resistance can occur
- SSTIs
- UTIs (especially if chronic or catheter associated)
- Chronic diseases leading to colonisation, e.g. cystic fibrosis
- Immunosuppressive disorders
- Healthcare-associated (nosocomial) infections (esp. ITUs- colonised by bacteria and become drug resistance due to amount of Abx given)
- Infections acquired overseas (Southern Europe NDM-1)
- Poor antimicrobial stewardship
