Antimicrobial stewardship programmes in health-care facilities in low- and middle-income countries: a WHO practical toolkit

The toolkit provides guidance on where to get started, including the structures and resources that should be put in place at the national and health-care facility level, through a stepwise approach in low-resource settings. As the ultimate goal of an AMS programme is sustainable behaviour change in physicians’ antibiotic prescribing practices, the toolkit also provides detailed guidance on how to plan, perform and assess AMS interventions – including feedback on antibiotic use over time. Finally, the toolkit provides an overview of the competencies an AMS team needs to guide health-care professionals in changing their antibiotic prescribing behaviours.

The course comprises 7 learning modules and 1 guided simulation. Each module is divided into topics and sub-topics to facilitate better learning retention and recall, and to prevent learner fatigue. The topics focus on providing practical guidance in implementing AMS programme within local contexts and explores the Assessment Tools that are available to enable a successful AMS implementation. The Assessment Tool will be explained through guided simulations that enable learners to 'walkthrough' the various sections. The learning modules will be followed by a summary and an objective assessment to gauge the learners' understanding.

Please note that this course is part of a training package, so please register for the complementary course WHO Policy Guidance on Integrated Antimicrobial Stewardship Activities so that you can complete your learning journey.

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

• Identify the fundamentals of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS)
• Analyse the structures for health-care facility AMS programmes
• Develop and plan an AMS programme in a health-care facility
• Perform AMS interventions in a health-care facility
• Assess an AMS programme
• Identify the education and training required to develop key AMS competencies
• Explain how to use the Periodic Health-Care Facility Assessment Tool