How To Assess Antibiotic Therapies

In this first video of my Antimicrobial Stewardship mini-series, I share my thought process on how I review my patient’s antimicrobial therapy as an Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist. Pharmacy schools often do not provide us with the adequate training or skills to confidently assess antimicrobial therapies. However, the increasing global threat of antimicrobial resistance and decreasing numbers of new antimicrobial agents coming through the pipeline, make this skill more important than ever for all pharmacists to have. Although this mini-series will not make you an expert in assessing every infection (you will need to do read up on these yourself), it will give you a foundational thought process to assess your patients’ antimicrobial therapies and guide you on the relevant information to look up. When you first apply this thought process in your practice, it will be difficult for the first 10 or so patients. However, gradually, it will start to feel more natural - so don't give up!

If you are interested in receiving a PDF version of this thought process so that you can use it to your practice, feel free to email me at: [email protected]

I’m opened to hearing your experience in using this thought process! Did you find this video helpful? Have you had any success stories in optimizing your patient’s antimicrobial therapies? Let me know in the comments below!

Thankyou so much for your support 💕

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Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
03:35 - 1. Quick screen
05:04 - 2. Target your review
06:26 - 2a. Assessing the indication
08:08 - 2b. Assessing the antimicrobial therapy's efficacy
12:00 - 2c. Assessing the antimicrobial therapy's safety
13:15 - 2d. Assessing patient's adherence to antimicrobial therapy
13:38 - Your plan
14:20 - Considering Antimicrobial Stewardship strategies

Disclaimer: I have no doubt that you already do this, but always use your clinical judgement when reviewing your patients' medication therapies and engage in discussion with your multidisciplinary team members when discussing your suggestions. I have confidence that you will be a great antimicrobial steward, however, I must put a disclaimer here that I will not accept responsibility for any harms (including patient harms) associated with the use of this video to make clinical judgements or decisions. This video constitutes my own thought process and views, and do not reflect those of my employer, organization, committee, or other group or individual.