Resources for Health Professionals

Oregon Alliance Working for Antibiotic Resistance Education (AWARE) is dedicated to reducing the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Oregon. Health care professionals have an important role in this initiative.

Research shows that adverse health outcomes are rare when providers are conservative in their prescribing of antibiotics.

Research also shows that patient satisfaction increases in direct proportion to the health care provider’s commitment to educating patients about self-care and symptom management for conditions where antibiotics are unnecessary. Evidence shows that patient satisfaction does not increase by fulfilling a patient’s or parent’s expectation of receiving an antibiotics prescription when requested.

The following are resources for health care professionals to support the judicious use of antibiotics.

Antibiotic Use Guidelines and Report

• Judicious Use of Antibiotics: A Guide for Oregon Clinicians, 2013 (pdf)
  Guidelines for nurses, physicians and PAs.

• Oregon Outpatient Prescribing Report, 2016 (pdf)
  This newly released report written by AWARE medical director, Dr. Ann Thomas, is intended to offer an easy to read and visualize overview of antibiotic prescribing practices in Oregon and areas for improvement.

AWARE Resources

• New Interpersonal Antibiotic Stewardship
  This CE activity, designed for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, reviews: 
• The problem of over-use of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria
• The need for antibiotic stewardship programs
• How to apply an adapted version of motivational skills, processes and techniques to antibiotic stewardship interactions
  
  
• Appropriate Use of Antibiotics for Upper Respiratory Tract Infections
  This activity outlines:
• Areas to improve antibiotic prescribing in Oregon
• Pathogens associated with upper respiratory tract infections and trends in resistance  
• How to use antibiotics appropriately
  
  
• Having Difficult Conversations
  This Activity introduces motivational interviewing techniques, local statistics, and case studies to provide participants with tools to successfully work through conflict related to over use of antibiotics.

• Acute otitis media Wait and See Prescription poster (pdf)
  This poster presents the Wait and See Prescription (WASP) approach as a tool to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics for acute otitis media.
   
• Bronchitis Wait and See Prescription poster (pdf)
  This poster presents the Wait and See Prescription (WASP) approach as a tool to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics for bronchitis.
  
  
• Exam room poster (jpeg)
  This easily modifiable template can be used to demonstrate to patients your commitment to preserving antibiotics and only using them when they are necessary. Please contact Oregon.AWARE@dhsoha.state.or.us for access to a fillable template and/or Spanish versions.

One Page Treatment Algorithms

• Acute Otitis Media (AOM) (pdf)
• Pharyngitis in Children and Adults (pdf)
• Acute Sinusitis / Rhinosinusitis - Adults (pdf)
• Acute Sinusitis / Rhinosinusitis - Children (pdf)
• Cough Illness / Bronchitis - Adults (pdf)
• Cough Illness / Bronchitis - Children (pdf)
• Community Acquired Pneumonia - Adults (pdf)
• Community Acquired Pneumonia - Children (pdf)
• The Use of CURB-65 for Determining Site of Care in Adults (pdf)
• Judicious Use of Antibiotics: Treatment Algorithms (full collection) (pdf)

Continuing Education (CE) Opportunities

• CDC's Antibiotic Stewardship Training Series
  This interactive web-based training contains four sections designed to help clinicians optimize antibiotic use, combat antibiotic resistance and improve health care quality and patient safety
• Antimicrobial Stewardship: Optimization of Antibiotic Practices
  This free 6 hour CME course will offer a practical approach to prescribing antibiotic therapy and development of antimicrobial stewardship to physicians and pharmacists across all specialties and setting

• AAP EQUIPP Course: Judicious Use of Antibiotics
  Free to AAP members. This activity is approved for 100 points of MOC Part 4 credit.

Technical Assistance

Contact Oregon.aware@dhsoha.state.or.us to ask about scheduling the following seminar opportunities:

• We are available to present a lecture for providers, health professional or public health students, or community stakeholders on antibiotic stewardship and the management of upper respiratory tract infections.
• We have developed a Having Difficult Conversations: Motivational Interviewing seminar intended for providers or health profession students. This seminar combines motivational interviewing techniques, local statistics, case studies and group and individual practice to provide participants with tools to successfully work through conflict related to over use of antibiotics or vaccine hesitancy.

Additional Resources

• Treatment guides for URIs - patient information sheets for upper respiratory infections
• Selected references - for health care professionals

Highlights

• CDC's national U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week is November 18-24, 2019. Get resources and information
• Oregon AWARE and our Judicious Use of Antibiotics Guide was featured in the April 2015 CD Summary Read the summary "Resist This: Unnecessary Prescribing of Antibiotics" (pdf)

External Resources

• CDC's Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship
• National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (pdf)
• Oregon's Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs): surveillance for group A and B streptococcus, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcal aureus
• CDC's Antibiotic Resistance Background Papers for Clinicians
• NIH Antimicrobial Resistance Facts
• CDC's Antimicrobial Resistance In Healthcare Settings
• Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics