Implementation of an Educational Intervention to Improve Antibiotic Stewardship in an Urgent Care Setting

Antimicrobial resistance is a leading threat to global health. Resistance to antibiotics in the United States continues to increase contributing to rising numbers of resistant infections and subsequent deaths. This highlights the critical need for increased focus on antibiotic stewardship efforts. Urinary tract infections are one of the leading indications for antibiotic prescription in the outpatient setting and research suggests that there is an opportunity for improvement in antibiotic stewardship efforts in this area. The PICOT question for this project is as follows: In an urgent care setting, does provider education on the current evidence for urinary tract infection diagnosis and management decrease the use of unnecessary or inappropriate antibiotics, optimize use of the urine culture test, and improve provider knowledge and confidence in the care of uncomplicated urinary tract infections? This scholarly project utilized a quasi-experimental design in which an educational intervention was implemented, and a pre-test and post-test was administered. The results from the project were analyzed using descriptive statistics methods. There was an increase in the mean value of each question post-intervention. This demonstrated a higher level of self-reported knowledge and confidence in the topics surrounding urinary tract infection care and management after the educational intervention. This scholarly project demonstrated that antibiotic stewardship programs benefit from educational components to increase provider knowledge of, and confidence in, the subject matter. The potential implications on healthcare from this project include improved antibiotic stewardship resulting in reduced antimicrobial resistance, improved provider knowledge and confidence, and ultimately improved patient outcomes and patient care.