Antimicrobial Stewardship Through a Pandemic: Perceptions of Transitions of Care, Durations of Therapy, and COVID-19 Vaccination

Infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship are national safety goals and it is imperative that pharmacists understand efforts to ensure appropriate antimicrobial selection and duration, to minimize resistance. Patients in the hospital setting and those discharged to home must be educated on proper use and how to avoid overuse of these agents. Additionally, part of the management of disease during these pandemic times is preventative health measures, including the COVID vaccines. Healthcare providers must understand herd immunity and preventing disease.

Healthcare providers must be able to discuss antimicrobial stewardship and prudent agent selection and duration, within the interprofessional team and with their patients. Strategies for transitions of care will be discussed as part of this CE seminar.

Target Audience

Nurse
Nurse Practitioner
Pharmacist
Pharmacy Technician
Physician
Physician Assistant
 

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

  • Utilize primary literature to identify appropriate durations of antimicrobial therapy based on source of infection and severity of illness
  • Describe the consequences of unnecessarily prolonged antimicrobial therapy.
  • Identify the gap of antimicrobial stewardship during transition of care and discuss the barriers and strategies for inpatient and outpatient pharmacists to help improve discharge antimicrobial prescribing processes.
  • Define the role of long-acting novel glycopeptides in the management of infections requiring long term antimicrobial therapy
  • Describe the concept and overall goal of herd immunity related to COVID-19 vaccinations Define and interpret vaccine efficacy data and the impact on various patient populations

     

Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 2.00 ACPE Pharmacy
    The UPMC Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) as a Provider of continuing pharmacy education.
  • 2.00 Attendance
Course opens: 
12/20/2021
Course expires: 
12/31/2024
Pittsburgh, PA
United States
  • Sunish Shah, PharmD, BCIDP - Infectious Diseases Clinical Pharmacist, UPMC Presbyterian
  • Leanna Liu, PharmD, BCPS, BCIDP - Pharmacy Fellow, Antimicrobial Stewardship/Infectious Diseases, UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside
  • Rachel Marini, PharmD, BCIDP - Lead Pharmacist, Infectious Diseases and Antibiotic Management, UPMC Presbyterian; Manager UPMC Southside COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic

Dr. Marini disclosed she receives a Merck supported CMV grant

Course Planners

  • Susan Skledar, RPh, MPH, FASHP - Director of Experiential Learning, Professor, Department of Pharmacy & Therapeutics, University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy
  • Amy Seybert, PharmD - Chair of the Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics as well as the Pharmacy Residency Administrator at UPMC

No other relationships with industry relevant to the content of this educational activity have been disclosed.

Authors disclosure of relevant financial relationships with any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services, used on, or consumed by, patients is listed above. No other planners, members of the planning committee, content reviewers and/or anyone else in a position to control the content of this education activity have relevant financial relationships to disclose.

In support of improving patient care, the University of Pittsburgh is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Pharmacy (ACPE)
This knowledge-based activity provides 2.0 contact hours of continuing pharmacy education credit.

Topic designator code = 05 (Patient Safety)

Topic designator code = 06 (Immunizations)

Other Healthcare Professionals
Other health care professionals will receive a certificate of attendance confirming the number of contact hours commensurate with the extent of participation in this activity.

Available Credit

  • 2.00 ACPE Pharmacy
    The UPMC Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) as a Provider of continuing pharmacy education.
  • 2.00 Attendance
Please login or register to take this course.