Abstract
Students should graduate from medical school feeling prepared to prescribe antibiotics responsibly. We assessed self-reported preparedness among students at medical schools in Europe, and we focus here on the results from students in Sweden and France, countries with wide differences in the intensity of antibiotic consumption and burden of antibiotic resistance. We conducted a cross-sectional web-based survey in 2015, based on a comprehensive set of topics related to prudent antibiotic use. All final year students at a medical school in France or Sweden were eligible to participate. Preparedness scores were calculated for each student, and mean scores were compared at medical school and country levels. Comparisons were also made on availability of teaching methods. We received responses from 2085/7653 (response rate 27.2%) students from 31/34 eligible medical schools in France and 302/1124 (26.9%) students from 7/7 schools in Sweden. The relative ranking order of curriculum topics by preparedness level was consistent between countries, but students in Sweden had higher self-reported levels of preparedness in 21/27 topics. There was higher availability for eight of nine teaching methods at Swedish medical schools. Students in France were more likely to report a need for further education on antibiotic use (63.5% vs. 20.3%, p < 0.001). Final year students in France report lower levels of preparedness, less availability of teaching methods and higher needs for more education on antibiotic use. Furthermore, we have identified specific areas for improvement in education on prudent antibiotic use in both Sweden and France.
Highlights
IntroductionMedical students must learn the fundamentals of infection diagnosis and Oliver James Dyar and Maria Lund contributed to this work
During their undergraduate training, medical students must learn the fundamentals of infection diagnosis and Oliver James Dyar and Maria Lund contributed to this work
Swedish students felt far more prepared to practise effective infection control and hygiene, to discuss antibiotic use with patients who are asking for antibiotics, when the student feels they are not necessary (7th vs. 16th), and to use knowledge of the epidemiology of bacterial resistance, including local/regional variations (18th vs. 27th); French students felt more prepared to use point-of-care tests (5th vs. 12th), to decide the urgency of antibiotic administration in different situations (8th vs. 15th), and to assess clinical outcomes and possible reasons for failure of antibiotic treatment (9th vs. 16th)
Summary
Medical students must learn the fundamentals of infection diagnosis and Oliver James Dyar and Maria Lund contributed to this work. Department, F-54000 Nancy, France management, and the connections between antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance [1, 2]. They should be prepared to prescribe antimicrobials responsibly when they commence work as junior doctors [3, 4]. The European-level results have been published [5] This manuscript presents a detailed sub-group analysis of responses from all participating medical schools in France and Sweden, which were selected for further analyses for two reasons: first, there are significant differences between these countries in the intensity and type of antibiotic use [6, 7]. The response rates in the study were broadly consistent for participating schools in both countries
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