University of Tasmania
Browse

Antimicrobial knowledge and confidence amongst final year medical students in Australia

Download (899.74 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 10:22 authored by Naomi WeierNaomi Weier, Thursky, K, Syed Razi ZaidiSyed Razi Zaidi

Introduction: Inappropriate use of antimicrobials is one of the major modifiable contributors to antimicrobial resistance. There is currently no validated survey tool available to assess knowledge and confidence of medical students in infectious diseases (ID) compared to other diseases states, and little is known about this topic.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional survey of final year medical students attending universities around Australia was conducted between August and September, 2015. A survey unique from other published studies was developed to survey satisfaction in education, confidence and knowledge in ID, and how this compared to these factors in cardiovascular diseases.

Results: Reliability and validity was demonstrated in the survey tool used. Students were more likely to rate university education as sufficient for cardiovascular diseases (91.3%) compared to ID (72.5%), and were more confident in their knowledge of cardiovascular diseases compared to ID (74.38% vs. 53.76%). Students tended to answer more cardiovascular disease related clinical questions correctly (mean score 78%), compared to questions on antimicrobial use (mean score 45%).

Conclusions: Poor knowledge and confidence amongst final year medical students in Australia were observed in ID. Antimicrobial stewardship agenda should include the provision of additional training in antimicrobial prescribing to the future medical workforce.

History

Publication title

PLoS One

Volume

12

Issue

8

Article number

e0182460

Number

e0182460

Pagination

1-11

ISSN

1932-6203

Department/School

School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Place of publication

United States

Rights statement

Copyright 2017 Weier et al. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Health education and promotion

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC