impact of antimicrobial stewardship strategies on antibiotic appropriateness and prescribing behaviours in selected countries in the Middle East: a systematic review

Antimicrobial resistance is a global health problem and antimicrobial stewardship is an essential component of hospital policies worldwide yet little is known regarding effective implementation strategies in the Middle East. We conducted a review of studies carried out in this region that deployed different antimicrobial stewardship strategies to assess antimicrobial appropriateness and prescribing behaviours. A search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Google and Google Scholar was conducted. Twenty articles met the inclusion criteria; 2 studies evaluated strategies including prospective audit with feedback, while 18 others evaluated strategies including benchmarking antimicrobial utilization against guidelines. Recommendations for implementation of stewardship in the Middle East highlighted the importance of developing and updating local antimicrobial prescribing policies and using collaborative interdisciplinary approaches for success

Changes in student perceptions after a semester-long interprofessional education activity in Qatar

Objectives: Interprofessional education [IPE] is rapidly becoming integrated into university accreditation standards worldwide. However, the impact of IPE on student learning and practice is largely unknown in the Middle East. This report describes a semester-long IPE coursebased activity and evaluates student perceptions towards professional roles

Methods: Pharmacy and Human Nutrition students from Qatar University completed a 15-week IPE activity that required students to work in groups to complete two assignments after an introductory event. The data were collected during meetings with students and faculty about their overall experience and course assignments. Perceptions regarding professional roles were determined by a pre- and post-reflection questionnaire

Results: After completion of the assignments, fourteen students [37%] noted changed perceptions of themselves, as well as of the other healthcare profession. Twelve of fourteen [86%] noted changes regarding perceptions of the roles of the other healthcare profession, while 2/14 [14%] noted changes regarding perception of their own professional roles. Three of fourteen [21%] reported that their changed perceptions towards IPE were unfavourable. These changed perceptions largely focused on specialised roles of the respective professions

Conclusions: A semester-long IPE experience was deemed beneficial in a Middle Eastern context. Future events and research should focus on fostering collaboration and interprofessional communication to enhance student attitudes and eventual preparation for interprofessional practice

Important steps for introducing interprofessional education into health professional education

Interprofessional education [IPE] engages students from different healthcare professions for learning with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and quality of care. Recognizing the complexity of designing and integrating IPE into different health curricula, this review describes twelve strategies for introducing IPE into pre-registration health professional education. We emphasize group responsibility among faculty and other stakeholders, clarity and unity of purpose expressed in outcomes informing inputs, and learning methods. This piece of work emphasizes facilitation as the key to effective interprofessional teaching and learning, with implications for the preparation of faculty and students. The supporting evidence from the literature has also shown that interprofessional student assessment and programme evaluation play key roles in the successful functioning of IPE courses