Education is an essential strategy for improving the use of antibiotics. However, education should not be the only strategy utilized in performing antibiotic stewardship.
Clinician education: Case-based educational activities can be particularly effective. This could include formal or informal didactic sessions or providing education about antibiotics while performing prospective audit with feedback and via discussions about preauthorization.
Target clinical audiences of education should include frontline clinicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other clinical providers. Education should be tailored to the topics most relevant to the specific audience, for example: community-acquired pneumonia guidelines for hospitalists, and education on culture techniques for nurses. All clinical staff should be educated about antimicrobial resistance, the local antibiogram, and the role of the ASP in promoting patient safety and optimizing clinical outcomes. The Joint Commission requires education of healthcare employees about antimicrobial resistance and stewardship (https://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/6/New_Antimicrobial_Stewardship_Standard.pdf)
The Pediatric Committee on Antimicrobial Stewardship maintains a stewardship education resources repository (PIDS Stewardship Education Share Folder).This repository includes educational curricula, didactic lectures, and other materials that can help provide education to a variety of learners. Access to this folder for sharing and uploading educational materials can be requested through PIDS.
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