Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Resources and Links

Commission resources

The Commission's AMS resources include:

• Antimicrobial Stewardship Clinical Care Standard
• Shared Decision Making – Patient Decision Aids for Antibiotic Use
• Antimicrobial Awareness Week Resources
• National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
• Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Australia Surveillance System

The Commission also supports the NPS Medicinewise – Antimicrobial prescribing courses and two antimicrobial use surveillance programs as part of the AURA Surveillance System:

• National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey (NAPS)
• National Antimicrobial Usage Surveillance Program (NAUSP)

Commission AMS Videos

Principles of Antibiotic Pharmacotherapy

Caroline Chen is an Antimicrobial Pharmacist at Melbourne Health, and a member of the Melbourne Health/NHMRC Antimicrobial Stewardship research team and National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey (NAPS) coordinating team. In this presentation, Caroline outlines different classes of commonly used antibiotics, their spectrum of activity and issues to consider when prescribing and administering these commonly used agents. The presentation acknowledges that antibiotics can be a difficult class of drugs to understand, and the importance of utilising the latest version of Therapeutic Guidelines: Antibiotic or local endorsed antibiotic prescribing guidelines, to support appropriate use of these commonly used medicines.

The primary target audience for this presentation is clinicians. In particular, new prescribers and pharmacists will find the information useful to their practice.

Part 1: Introduction to Antibiotic Therapy

Part 1 introduces the viewer to some general principles of antibiotic therapy, basic pharmacokinetics, as well as outlining some important aspects of the patient’s clinical condition to be considered when administering antibiotics.

Part 2: The Antibiotics

In Part 2, the spectrum of activity of beta-lactams – penicillins, cephalosporins, and carbapenems is discussed. Issues relating to penicillin allergies are also considered.

Part 3: Other Antibiotics

In the third and final part of “Principles of Antibiotic Pharmacotherapy” some of the other commonly used antibiotics are discussed, including the aminoglycoside antibiotics.

Australian resources and links

The links below provide information on Australian AMS and infection prevention and control work.

Disclaimer: These links are provided for convenience only and should not be construed as an endorsement by the Commonwealth of Australia; conversely omissions should not be construed as non-endorsement.

• National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy
• Communicable Diseases Network Australia
• Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance
• Australasian Society for Infectious Disease
• Australian Society for Antimicrobials
• Therapeutic Guidelines: Antibiotic

See below for your state / territory AMS resources: