Welcome to the course

Welcome to this course on setting up an antimicrobial stewardship programme. In this video Professor Dilip Nathwani, OBE, lead educator, welcomes you to the course.

Over the next three weeks, we will introduce the key components of setting up an antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programme – including the goals and core elements of AMS, how to build an effective team for your setting, and how to appropriately evaluate the success of the programme. We will look at the importance of AMS on a local, regional, and global scale.

In the first week, we will cover key concepts of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial stewardship. We will also examine governance and leadership roles when referring to AMS programmes.

We recognise that AMS is supported by a broad array of interventions, and this focus on those discussed in the WHO LMIC toolkit, which we will reference throughout. In addition, please note that this course will briefly mention COVID-19. For further information and critical analysis of the evolving link between COVID-19 and its impact on AMR, we suggest the following links to the CDC and SHEA.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Investigate the drivers of antimicrobial resistance and understand the need for antimicrobial stewardship.
• Identify the structures and set-up required for an AMS programme.
• Explore the importance of assessing and monitoring AMS programmes and interventions.
• Explore the behaviour change challenge behind improving antibiotic usage.
• Demonstrate the process of planning and performing AMS interventions.

A glossary of key terms for this course can be found in the downloads section below.

Using FutureLearn courses

If you are new to FutureLearn courses, click here for a guide on how to engage with the course.

Learners can also upgrade to have:

• Unlimited access to the course: Go at your own pace with unlimited access to the course for as long as it exists on FutureLearn.
• A Certificate of Achievement: To help you demonstrate your learning, we’ll send you a Certificate of Achievement when you become eligible – this can go towards CPD points.

Please note that there will be no educator facilitation on this course; however, it will still be monitored by our course administrators.

Before we begin, we would like to remind you of FutureLearn’s Code of Conduct, which should be considered before participating in the discussions throughout this course.

Please remember this is an open-access platform and public domain, so please do not share any private or confidential information.

Enjoy

We hope you find this course useful and enjoy learning about setting up an AMS programme! We value your input and encourage you to let us know your opinions in the comments as you go along.