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Hospital-based Interventions to Contain Antibiotic Resistance in Low-resource Settings

A practical 3-week course for healthcare workers offering an interdisciplinary and interactive training on antibiotic resistance and its containment at hospital level in low-resource settings.

Deadline: 15 January 2024

Short Courses

5 ECTS Credits

English

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About the course

Rationale

Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is a fast-growing problem worldwide, considered as a major threat to public health by the World Health Organization and disproportionally hitting low-resource settings (LRS). Antibiotic resistance is quickly becoming an important public health problem in these contexts because of the high burden of resistant pathogens, the scarce options for diagnosis and therapy, the lack of technical and managerial competences or the lack of adapted guidelines and trainings.


The short course “Hospital-based Interventions to Contain Antibiotic Resistance in Low-resource Settings (AIM)” is a 3-week course which offers an interdisciplinary and interactive training on relevant aspects of antibiotic resistance and its containment at the hospital level. The course focuses on hospitals because they concentrate the most ill and vulnerable patients; in addition, they are hotbeds of healthcare-acquired infections, act as referral sites for difficult-to-treat infections and host trainees and postgraduate educational programs. The short-course consists of a common track and 3 specific tracks on Antibiotic Stewardship (ABS), Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) and Microbiological Surveillance (MS) in the hospital setting. These are closely linked key components in the successful containment of antibiotic resistance.


Healthcare professionals from LRS already involved in ABR-containment are invited to apply. Candidates are encouraged to state and motivate their preference for one of the three course tracks (ABS, IPC or MS).

Learning objectives

After having successfully completed the course, participants should be able to develop and implement actions in the containment of ABR in his/her facility in LRS, in at least one of the three tracks (ABS, IPC and MS). 

In addition, after having successfully completed the Antibiotic Stewardship track, participants should be able to:

  • Implement principles of rational use of antibiotics at patient and hospital level.
  • Collect/interpret quantitative/qualitative data on antibiotic use and antibiotic susceptibility results.
  • Translate ABR-data into antibiotic treatment guidelines and a local antibiotic policy.
  • Implement and evaluate an antibiotic policy at hospital level. 

After having successfully completed the Infection Prevention & Control track, participants should be able to:

  • Develop a strategy to improve hand hygiene, cleaning / disinfection of the environment and equipment.
  • Implement and teach principles of transmission-based precautions.
  • Propose possible solutions regarding organizational aspects and core components of IPC.
  • Outline care bundles for invasive devices and apply basics of good nursing practices.
  • Assess the evidence-based measures with regards to the prevention of surgical site infections.
  • Have an understanding of surveillance of healthcare associated infections and outbreak investigation. 

After having successfully completed the Microbiological Surveillance track, participants should be able to:

  • Perform quality assured clinical bacteriology, from indications to reporting.
  • Collect, interpret and report antibiotic resistance data for individual patients.
  • Aggregate laboratory-based data into a meaningful surveillance report.
  • Sample, work-up and report selected specimens as a support for infection control.
  • Communicate and interact with clinicians and infection prevention & control staff
  • Understand and apply the role of the diagnostic microbiology laboratory in the antibiotic stewardship and infection prevention & control committees 
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Tuition fee

€ 730 EEA / 1900 non-EEA

Accreditation

TropEd , valid until 12 July 2027

Course Leader(s)

  • Jan Jacobs

Course Coordinator(s)

  • Charlotte Grootaers

Course Administrator(s)

  • Ana Dourado

Contact

  • aim@itg.be