Original Research

Knowledge and perceptions of antimicrobial stewardship concepts among final year pharmacy students in pharmacy schools across South Africa

Marisa Burger, Jaco Fourie, Devin Loots, Tercia Mnisi, Natalie Schellack, Selente Bezuidenhout, Johanna C. Meyer
Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases | Vol 31, No 3 | a83 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v31i3.83 | © 2019 Marisa Burger, Jaco Fourie, Devin Loots, Tercia Mnisi, Natalie Schellack, Selente Bezuidenhout, Johanna C. Meyer | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 15 May 2019 | Published: 01 October 2016

About the author(s)

Marisa Burger, Department of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Pretoria, South Africa
Jaco Fourie, Department of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Pretoria, South Africa
Devin Loots, Department of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Pretoria, South Africa
Tercia Mnisi, Department of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Pretoria
Natalie Schellack, Department of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Pretoria, South Africa
Selente Bezuidenhout, Department of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Pretoria, South Africa
Johanna C. Meyer, Department of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Pretoria, South Africa

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Abstract

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship is currently not mandatory as part of the undergraduate training of pharmacists. Identifying gaps in knowledge and a better understanding of pharmacy students’ perceptions about antimicrobial stewardship could assist in recommendations for appropriate changes to the pharmacy degree curricula that may lead to more appropriate use of antimicrobials, within the multi-disciplinary team.

Methods: A descriptive quantitative study with a survey design was conducted at the eight universities offering the pharmacy degree in South Africa. An electronic questionnaire with four main categories on antimicrobial stewardship was administered to final (fourth) year pharmacy students (June–August 2015).

Results: An overall response rate of 26.6% (n = 260) was obtained from 978 students, despite a weekly reminder. Most of the respondents were familiar with antimicrobial stewardship programmes in South Africa (71.9%), and claimed to know what antimicrobial stewardship is (83.5%) with significant differences between the universities (p < 0.001). Only 37.7% of the respondents recalled having had formal training on antimicrobial stewardship, with responses from the eight universities differing significantly (p < 0.001). However, almost all respondents (98.5%) felt that a strong knowledge of antimicrobials was important for their future career, with 90.0% indicating that they would like more training on antimicrobial stewardship at undergraduate level.

Conclusion: There were significant differences between the eight universities with regards to undergraduate education on antimicrobial stewardship. In order to help prevent antimicrobial resistance, efforts should be made to introduce concepts of antimicrobial stewardship into the undergraduate pharmacy curricula to promote better use of antimicrobials and prevent antimicrobial resistance.


Keywords

antimicrobial resistance; antimicrobial stewardship; education; pharmacy students

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