- Title
- A retrospective study of antimicrobial prescribing practices in paediatric patients at the Mahalapye District Hospital, Central Botswana
- Creator
- Nyawera, Angella
- Subject
- Anti-infective agents Botswana Mahalapye
- Subject
- Drug resistance
- Subject
- Pediatrics Botswana Mahalapye
- Subject
- Pediatrics Formulae, receipts, prescriptions
- Subject
- Drugs Prescribing Moral and ethical aspects
- Date Issued
- 2022-04-06
- Date
- 2022-04-06
- Type
- Academic theses
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/290682
- Identifier
- vital:56774
- Description
- Background: The development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been linked to the increased and irrational use of antimicrobial medicines. The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial prescribing practices in the paediatric medical ward at Mahalapye District Hospital (MDH) in Botswana and to determine whether antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) measures were being implemented at the hospital. Methods A cross-sectional, descriptive, mixed methods, observational approach was taken in this study. The study site was the paediatric medical ward (PMW) at MDH. Information about the antimicrobials prescribed for paediatric patients from January 2018 to December 2018 was collected from patients’ information files and compared to national antimicrobial prescribing guidelines to determine prescribers’ adherence. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of staff at MDH to determine whether antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) measures were adopted at the hospital. Results A total of 278 patients were included in this study, 12 of these were admitted twice during the study period. In total 290 admissions were analysed, with 659 antimicrobial medicines prescribed. The most common diagnoses were pneumonia (36.9%), acute gastroenteritis (20.7%), upper respiratory tract infections (3.4%), and bronchiolitis (3.1%). The most prescribed antimicrobials were ampicillin (21.4%), gentamicin (21.2%), and cefotaxime (8.3%). Adherence to guidelines was relatively good, with 82.7% of antimicrobials prescribed for the patients in the study having been prescribed in compliance with the national prescribing guidelines. The semi-structured interviews highlighted the fact that staff knew about AMS and AMR in general, however awareness of an AMS committee at MDH varied. The AMS committee was a multidisciplinary committee, which was a subcommittee of the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee (DTC). Discussion and Conclusion The results suggest that adherence to prescribing guidelines was relatively high compared to other paediatric antimicrobial utilisation studies in African countries. Prescribing of antimicrobial medicines was consistent with other African countries. The long period of time that it takes for microbiological test results to become available means that most prescribers rely on empirical prescribing. The antimicrobial committee is a multidisciplinary committee with defined roles for its members, consistent with international guidelines for implementing an AMS committee at a hospital.
- Description
- Thesis (MPharm) -- Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacy, 2022
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (142 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Rhodes University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacy
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nyawera, Angella
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | NYAWERA-MPHARM-TR22-96.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |