Validation and implementation of a national survey to assess antimicrobial stewardship awareness, practices and perceptions amongst community pharmacists of Australia

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs are well established in hospitals, yet such programs have not been widely implemented in the community. Understanding of the current practices and perceptions of community pharmacists about AMS may provide insights into the implementation of AMS in community pharmacies.

Objectives: To validate a questionnaire to measure community pharmacists’ perceptions of AMS, and to explore barriers and facilitators of their involvement in community based AMS initiatives.

Methods: A 44-item survey questionnaire, comprising sections on demographics, AMS practices and perceptions of community pharmacists, and barriers and facilitators to AMS, was hosted online. Community pharmacists were recruited through social media pages of community pharmacist groups across Australia. Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis were used to measure the reliability and validity of the survey tool, respectively.

Results: Three hundred and thirty community pharmacists started the survey, with 255 of them completing at least one or more questions. Pharmacists were more likely to intervene with General Practitioners (GP) (80% of the time or above) for allergies, dosing and drug-interactions and less likely to intervene if they felt the choice of antibiotic is inappropriate (45%). Major barriers limiting pharmacists’ participation in AMS were lack of access to patient’s data (82.6%) and lack of access to a standard guideline to implement AMS programs (72.1%). Almost all pharmacists (98%) reported that better collaboration with GPs will improve their participation in AMS initiative.

Conclusions: Future studies utilising the knowledge gained from this study may provide a framework for AMS in community pharmacy settings.