Developing a curriculum on antimicrobial stewardship for pediatric residents: A needs assessment

Objective: Identify essential components of a curriculum on antimicrobial stewardship (AS) for pediatric residents. Design: Survey. Setting: Academic tertiary care children's hospital. Participants: Pediatric residents and infectious diseases (ID)/AS content experts (CE), including pediatric ID faculty, fellows, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists. Methods: Residents were surveyed to assess prior AS experiences and usefulness of education in different AS domains (e.g., antimicrobial resistance [AMR]). CE was surveyed to identify content to include in an AS curriculum. A specific topic (e.g., resistance in Staphylococcus aureus) achieved consensus if ≥80% of CE identified the topic as very or extremely important. Results: Thirty-three of 110 pediatric residents responded to the resident survey (response rate 30%). Spectrum of activity (97%), empiric therapy (94%), and duration of therapy (94%) were the domains identified by the most residents as very or extremely useful. All CE responded to the CE survey (n=26). Thirty-nine of 105 topics (37%) met the consensus threshold. The domains with most topics achieving consensus were empiric therapy (11/13 topics, 85%) and duration of therapy (5/8 topics, 63%). Only one topic was identified within the domains of antibiotic allergies, diagnostics, and AMR, reflecting 18%, 14%, and 6% of the potential topics within each domain, respectively. Conclusions: A pediatric AS curriculum focused on empiric therapy and duration of therapy is likely to meet the needs of both learners and CEs.