Antibiotics: Learning outcomes
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After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:
- Describe the importance of effective antibiotic stewardship.
- Classify common clinically important bacteria, describe what organisms are usually found where and select appropriate antibiotics.
- Tailor antibiotic therapy according to your patient's medical history, concomitant medicines and allergy status.
You can download a PDF of the whole tutorial (without interactive elements such as Learning Exercises).

Competencies
This tutorial is aimed at hospital pre-registration pharmacists, and will help you achieve GPhC standards such as these:- A1.6 Make decisions which demonstrate clear and logical thought
- A3.1 Recognise and define actual or potential problems
- A3.2 Identify workable options to resolve the problem
- A3.3 Select the best solution, based on sound analysis and appropriate evidence
- B1.4 Elicit all relevant information by the use of appropriate questions
- C2.1 Provide considered and correct answers to queries, founded on research-based evidence
If you are a foundation pharmacist, this tutorial may help you meet competencies from the RPS framework including:
- 1.2 Need for the medicine
- 1.4 Selection of the medicine (medicine-medicine, medicine-patient, medicine-disease interactions)
- 1.5 Medicine specific issues (ensures appropriate dose, selection of dosing regimen, selection of formulation and concentration)
- 1.8 Evaluation of outcomes
- 3.2 Knowledge
- 3.3 Analysing information
Continuing professional development
Finally, here are some CPD activities you could consider:
★ Shadow your microbiology multi-disciplinary team on a ward round. Reflect upon, and learn from their expert decision making.
★ Does your department record the clinical questions received by the on-call pharmacists out of hours? Review the calls involving antibiotics - would you have known the answer or where to look for information? Identify and prioritise your knowledge and experience gaps.
★ Choose a patient with an interesting infection and present the case to your team. Teaching others is an effective way to improve your knowledge of a particular topic and increase your confidence if faced with a similar case again.
★ Shadow your microbiology multi-disciplinary team on a ward round. Reflect upon, and learn from their expert decision making.
★ Does your department record the clinical questions received by the on-call pharmacists out of hours? Review the calls involving antibiotics - would you have known the answer or where to look for information? Identify and prioritise your knowledge and experience gaps.
★ Choose a patient with an interesting infection and present the case to your team. Teaching others is an effective way to improve your knowledge of a particular topic and increase your confidence if faced with a similar case again.