“Investigating the need for an antimicrobial stewardship program” A survey-based study provided by FADIC

Implementation of active learning techniques in the “First Arabian Drug Information Center (FADIC)” antimicrobial stewardship program

“Investigating the best active learning techniques used in Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Education” A survey-Based study provided by FADIC

• FADIC “First Arabian Drug Information Center” is an online drug information center, available in both Arabic and English language. All FADIC team members are board certified pharmacotherapy specialists (BCPS). It aims at improving the quality of medication use practice and increasing health care awareness. FADIC offers a variety of online trainings, such as online conferences, in addition to continuous improvement programs that help pharmacists stay updated with the latest advances in clinical practice. FADIC served a variety of successful programs like the “Drug information program and workshop”, the “patient Counselling and education program” and many others.
• Pharmacy education is continuously developing, incorporating more innovative strategies, such as active-learning techniques which help in the implementation of effective pharmacy continuous improvement programs.
• The online surveys such as Pre & Post Program Survey, Post Session Survey and Middle program survey are adopted to attain the achievement of The Learning Program objectives, evaluate the effectiveness of each session and the streaming of the sessions accordingly.
• One of the new upcoming programs provided by FADIC is the “FADIC antimicrobial stewardship program and workshop”. Antimicrobial stewardship is a coordinated program that promotes the proper use of antibiotics and other antimicrobials, in order to improve patient outcomes, reduce microbial resistance and decrease the spread of infections caused by multidrug resistant organisms.
• Antibiotics represent one of the greatest achievements in the medical field, changing once potentially fatal infections to easily treatable ones. Unfortunately, the irrational use of antibiotics is leading the world to an impending disaster, due to the development of resistance. The rapidly growing antibiotics resistance, prompts the need for adopting new, strict guidelines for antibiotics use.
• The objectives of this poster abstract are to assess the need for antimicrobial stewardship program  as well as determine the qualifications of all interested healthcare professionals who need this program, in addition to determining the best active learning techniques suitable for achieving the desired outcome from online learning antimicrobial stewardship program.

• This is a descriptive cross sectional study that was carried out in a short period of time, started from September,4 2016 to September,16, 2016. The study was carried out in the form of a survey, to assess the knowledge base and need for antimicrobial stewardship program among healthcare professionals specially pharmacists, in addition to the optimal active learning techniques that can be used to achieve the most effective outcome.
• It was distributed by e-mail via online FADIC email, in addition to social media for assessing pharmacists’ awareness about stewardship program and the best way to introduce a perfect training program to help in implementing antibiotic policies. The survey was closed after 12 days.
• The survey targeted pharmacists from different countries (Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia , Sudan.), in addition to different facilities (hospitals, medical centers , community pharmacies, research centers, medical companies)
• By assessing the active learning techniques that are preferred in learning antimicrobial stewardship program. Table 1 summarizes some of active learning techniques given to the survey respondents as response options. No descriptions of any techniques were included in the survey itself.

• The survey was emailed to pharmacists, survey respondents were 184 pharmacist from Egypt , UAE , KSA and other countries  from different specialities (28.3% clinical pharmacists , 20.5% community pharmacists , 16.3% Inpatient hospital pharmacists , 10.2% Outpatient hospital pharmacists , 4.8% Healthcare quality specialists).
• The qualitative responses from pharmacists indicated the limited knowledge about Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. (48% stated that they don’t know about the program. One of the most important finding from the survey was that there is no antimicrobial management policies in different areas of practice. (62.1% stated that there is no antibiotics use policy at their institutions. (Figure 2).
• One of the interesting finding from the survey is that internet based sources such as social media and online courses serve as effective communication channels for increasing the awareness and decreasing the growing resistance to antimicrobials. The percentage of social media as a source of information was 32.6%. in addition to the online courses were 35.9%, which raise the need for the presence of evidence based online programs.
• Another finding from the survey is related to the preferred active learning techniques that can be used in online learning program for pharmacist. Among the results from the survey, the percentage of online self-study session was 53%, The percentage of case-based discussion was 51%, the percentage of live webinars were 32% , the percentage of team-based learning was 37% and the percentage of project implementation was 27%.
• The results from the survey respondents about the methods and practices that can decrease the antimicrobials resistance to face the growing resistance to antimicrobials were  education of antimicrobial stewardship program, in addition to application of the evidence based guidelines.

• The rapidly growing antibiotics resistance as a consequence of inappropriate, and unnecessary antimicrobial use, prompts the need for proper education of healthcare professionals.
• Active learning has an indispensable role in pharmacy education. The antimicrobial stewardship program provides an innovative and attractive option, aiding in the optimization of patient outcomes.
• “FADIC antimicrobial stewardship program and workshop”,  is an online program carried out through FADIC website, The online discussions will be through online meeting rooms such as GoToMeeting, with active learning techniques such as Online self-study sessions, live webinars, case-based discussions, team-based learning and project implementation. The program will consist of 2 levels; the basic level and the advanced level.
• Thus, there is a great need for structured programs to educate pharmacists about their roles and the basic requirements to face the crisis of multi-drug resistance.