Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on provision of antimicrobial stewardship education and training in UK health service sites.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antimicrobial stewardship is a cause for serious concern. There is evidence of increased antibiotic usage in many settings and fears of over-use, especially of broad-spectrum antibiotics in patients with COVID-19, raising concerns about potential impact on antimicrobial resistance globally. At the same time, the pandemic has impacted the provision of education and training throughout the health and education sectors, during a period when health services and staff were under unprecedented pressure. All-Wales Antimicrobial Resistance Educators (AWARE) is an interprofessional network of healthcare professionals whose roles include provision of antimicrobial stewardship education in National Health Service health boards across Wales. The aim of this report was to use AWARE project data to study the impact of the pandemic on the provision of antimicrobial stewardship education and training in healthcare settings in Wales in 2020, compared to 2019. Overall, the number of staff reached by education increased by 10%, despite the number of educational sessions falling by 26% and the number of hours of teaching by 43%. Rapid switch to virtual education allowed fewer, shorter, educational sessions, allowing more staff to be reached.

Longitudinal relationship between problematic internet use with loneliness during and after COVID-19 social restrictions: Short title: Internet use and loneliness.

Two, three-month long longitudinal studies examined the temporal relationships between problematic internet use (PIU), internet usage, and loneliness ratings, during and after lockdown restrictions. Experiment 1 examined 32, 18-51 year old participants, over a three-month period of lockdown restrictions. Experiment 2 studied 41, 18-51 year old participants, over a three-month period following the lifting of lockdown restrictions. Participants completed the internet addiction test, UCLA loneliness scale, and answered questioned about their online usage, at two time points. All cross-sectional analyses revealed a positive relationship between PIU and loneliness. However, there was no association between online use and loneliness. Longitudinal relationships between PIU and loneliness differed during and after lockdown restrictions. During a period of lockdown, there were both positive associations between earlier PIU and subsequent loneliness, and between earlier loneliness and subsequent PIU. However, following the easing of lockdown restrictions, only the temporal relationship between earlier internet addiction and later loneliness was significant.

Development and presentation of an objective risk stratification tool for healthcare workers when dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: risk modelling based on hospitalisation and mortality statistics compared with epidemiological data

ObjectivesHealthcare workers have greater exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and an estimated 2.5-fold increased risk of contracting COVID-19 than the general population. We wished to explore the predictive role of basic demographics to establish a simple tool that could help risk stratify healthcare workers.SettingWe undertook a review of the published literature (including multiple search strategies in MEDLINE with PubMed interface) and critically assessed early reports on preprint servers. We explored the relative risk of mortality from readily available demographics to identify the population at the highest risk.ResultsThe published studies specifically assessing the risk of healthcare workers had limited demographics available;therefore, we explored the general population in the literature. Clinician demographics: Mortality increased with increasing age from 50 years onwards. Male sex at birth, and people of black and minority ethnicity groups had higher susceptibility to both hospitalisation and mortality. Comorbid disease. Vascular disease, renal disease, diabetes and chronic pulmonary disease further increased risk. Risk stratification tool: A risk stratification tool was compiled using a white female aged <50 years with no comorbidities as a reference. A point allocated to risk factors was associated with an approximate doubling in risk. This tool provides numerical support for healthcare workers when determining which team members should be allocated to patient facing clinical duties compared with remote supportive roles.ConclusionsWe generated a tool that provides a framework for objective risk stratification of doctors and healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, without requiring disclosure of information that an individual may not wish to share with their direct line manager during the risk assessment process. This tool has been made freely available through the British Medical Association website and is widely used in the National Health Service and other external organisations.