New framework to help undergraduate healthcare professionals be antibiotic aware
15 November 2018
Healthcare professional educators and healthcare students can draw on a new competency framework which supports optimal use of antibiotics collaboratively developed by researchers and healthcare workers including Dr Rosemary Lim and Mr Dan Grant from the School of Pharmacy, University of Reading.
The competency framework, which is headlined in a special section to mark World Antibiotic Awareness Week in the Journal of Hospital Infection, has been developed to help healthcare educators and students understand appropriate use of antibiotics to treat infection. To date, the competencies have been endorsed by scientific and professional societies including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Royal College of Nursing in the UK, The College of Podiatry, and the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care.
Dr Rosemary Lim, Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice at the University of Reading said:
“As antibiotic resistance is encouraged by exposure to antibiotics, it is essential that these are used only when necessary. However, many factors can lead healthcare workers to prescribe antibiotics when their use may not be required.
“Increasing and improving the education of healthcare professionals and healthcare students about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance has been highlighted as a key element of efforts to improve antibiotic use.”
The framework consists of six sections or ‘domains’, each with an overarching competency statement and individual descriptors to enable educators and learners to incorporate these into existing curricula. Full citation:
M. Courtenay, R. Lim, E. Castro-Sanchez, et al, 2018. Development of consensus-based national antimicrobial stewardship competencies for UK undergraduate healthcare professional education. The Journal of Hospital Infection, 10.1016/j.jhin.2018.06.022 0195-6701