The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Self-assessment of antimicrobial stewardship in primary care: Self-reported practice using the TARGET primary care self-assessment tool

Self-assessment of antimicrobial stewardship in primary care: Self-reported practice using the TARGET primary care self-assessment tool
Self-assessment of antimicrobial stewardship in primary care: Self-reported practice using the TARGET primary care self-assessment tool

Multifaceted antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) interventions including: antibiotic guidance, reviews of antibiotic use using audits, education, patient facing materials, and self-assessment, are successful in improving antimicrobial use. We aimed to measure the self-reported AMS activity of staff completing a self-assessment tool (SAT). The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)/Public Health England (PHE) SAT enables participants considering an AMS eLearning course to answer 12 short questions about their AMS activities. Questions cover guidance, audit, and reflection about antibiotic use, patient facing materials, and education. Responses are recorded digitally. Data were collated, anonymised, and exported into Microsoft Excel. Between November 2014 and June 2016, 1415 users completed the SAT. Ninety eight percent reported that they used antibiotic guidance for treating common infections and 63% knew this was available to all prescribers. Ninety four percent of GP respondents reported having used delayed prescribing when appropriate, 25% were not using Read codes, and 62% reported undertaking a practice-wide antibiotic audit in the last two years, of which, 77% developed an audit action plan. Twenty nine percent had undertaken other antibiotic-related clinical courses. Fifty six percent reported sharing patient leaflets covering infection. Many prescribers reported undertaking a range of AMS activities. GP practice managers should ensure that all clinicians have access to prescribing guidance. Antibiotic audits should be encouraged to enable GP staff to understand their prescribing behaviour and address gaps in good practice. Prescribers are not making full use of antibiotic prescribing-related training opportunities. Read coding facilitates more accurate auditing and its use by all clinicians should be encouraged.

Antimicrobial resistance, Antimicrobial stewardship, General practice, Primary care, Self-assessment, TARGET
Owens, Rebecca
384bbfa3-c233-49cf-a755-e23d9df5850e
Jones, Leah Ffion
72ab5964-52a6-416e-adee-34ef97cf2724
Moore, Michael
1be81dad-7120-45f0-bbed-f3b0cc0cfe99
Pilat, Dirk
183fbf80-e256-4e64-879c-0c47bbeb7cda
McNulty, Cliodna
212425d9-06ca-4ef8-9982-1acbd579c8ee
Owens, Rebecca
384bbfa3-c233-49cf-a755-e23d9df5850e
Jones, Leah Ffion
72ab5964-52a6-416e-adee-34ef97cf2724
Moore, Michael
1be81dad-7120-45f0-bbed-f3b0cc0cfe99
Pilat, Dirk
183fbf80-e256-4e64-879c-0c47bbeb7cda
McNulty, Cliodna
212425d9-06ca-4ef8-9982-1acbd579c8ee

Owens, Rebecca, Jones, Leah Ffion, Moore, Michael, Pilat, Dirk and McNulty, Cliodna (2017) Self-assessment of antimicrobial stewardship in primary care: Self-reported practice using the TARGET primary care self-assessment tool. Antibiotics, 6 (3), [16]. (doi:10.3390/antibiotics6030016).

Record type: Review

Abstract

Multifaceted antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) interventions including: antibiotic guidance, reviews of antibiotic use using audits, education, patient facing materials, and self-assessment, are successful in improving antimicrobial use. We aimed to measure the self-reported AMS activity of staff completing a self-assessment tool (SAT). The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)/Public Health England (PHE) SAT enables participants considering an AMS eLearning course to answer 12 short questions about their AMS activities. Questions cover guidance, audit, and reflection about antibiotic use, patient facing materials, and education. Responses are recorded digitally. Data were collated, anonymised, and exported into Microsoft Excel. Between November 2014 and June 2016, 1415 users completed the SAT. Ninety eight percent reported that they used antibiotic guidance for treating common infections and 63% knew this was available to all prescribers. Ninety four percent of GP respondents reported having used delayed prescribing when appropriate, 25% were not using Read codes, and 62% reported undertaking a practice-wide antibiotic audit in the last two years, of which, 77% developed an audit action plan. Twenty nine percent had undertaken other antibiotic-related clinical courses. Fifty six percent reported sharing patient leaflets covering infection. Many prescribers reported undertaking a range of AMS activities. GP practice managers should ensure that all clinicians have access to prescribing guidance. Antibiotic audits should be encouraged to enable GP staff to understand their prescribing behaviour and address gaps in good practice. Prescribers are not making full use of antibiotic prescribing-related training opportunities. Read coding facilitates more accurate auditing and its use by all clinicians should be encouraged.

Text
antibiotics-06-00016 - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (421kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 11 August 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 August 2017
Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance, Antimicrobial stewardship, General practice, Primary care, Self-assessment, TARGET

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 415602
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/415602
PURE UUID: f1075852-20f4-4f4f-bfe4-ab5dd9b49792
ORCID for Michael Moore: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5127-4509

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 16 Nov 2017 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:43

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Rebecca Owens
Author: Leah Ffion Jones
Author: Michael Moore ORCID iD
Author: Dirk Pilat
Author: Cliodna McNulty

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×