What is Antimicrobial Stewardship? A Simple Guide

• 25th March 2023

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Updated: March2025

Table of Contents

1. What Is Antimicrobial Stewardship?
2. Why Is Antimicrobial Stewardship Important?
3. Key Benefits of Antimicrobial Stewardship
4. How Is Antimicrobial Stewardship Implemented?
5. Final Thoughts
6. How Core Prescribing Solutions Can Help

Antimicrobial stewardship is a structured approach to ensuring the responsible use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), improve patient outcomes, and reduce unnecessary prescribing. By optimising medication selection, dosage, and treatment duration, antimicrobial stewardship programs help prevent drug resistance, minimise side effects, and preserve the effectiveness of current treatments for future generations.

Key Takeaways:

• Antimicrobial stewardship ensures antibiotics are used appropriately to reduce drug resistance and improve patient care.
• Misuse of antimicrobials accelerates resistance, making common infections harder to treat over time.
• Healthcare providers play a key role in optimising prescriptions, monitoring resistance patterns, and promoting responsible prescribing.

What Is Antimicrobial Stewardship?

Antimicrobial stewardship refers to a coordinated strategy aimed at optimising the use of antimicrobials, including antibiotics, to improve patient outcomes, reduce antimicrobial resistance, and prevent unnecessary drug exposure. The goals of antimicrobial stewardship include ensuring the right drug, dose, and duration are used for infections, minimising the spread of resistant bacteria, and preserving the effectiveness of current treatments for the future.

Why Is Antimicrobial Stewardship Important?

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global threat, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of severe illness, longer hospital stays, and higher healthcare costs. The misuse and overuse of antibiotics accelerate this resistance, reducing the effectiveness of treatments over time.

Antimicrobial stewardship NICE guidelines provide evidence-based strategies to support responsible antimicrobial prescribing, ensuring that antibiotics and other antimicrobials are used correctly and only when necessary. By following these recommendations, healthcare providers can combat resistance, improve patient safety, and maintain the long-term efficacy of treatments.

Key Benefits of Antimicrobial Stewardship

Antimicrobial Stewardship has many benefits, some of which include:

• Prevents antimicrobial resistance – Reduces the development of drug-resistant infections.
• Improves patient outcomes – Ensures the right drug, dose, and duration are used for effective treatment.
• Reduces healthcare costs – Minimises unnecessary prescriptions, hospitalisations, and complications.
• Preserves antibiotics for the future – Protects the effectiveness of current treatments for future generations.

By promoting responsible prescribing and infection control, antimicrobial stewardship safeguards both individual patients and public health.

How Is Antimicrobial Stewardship Implemented?

Effective antimicrobial stewardship strategies focus on ensuring safe, appropriate, and evidence-based use of antimicrobials in healthcare settings. These programs help reduce resistance, improve patient outcomes, and minimise unnecessary prescriptions.

Antimicrobial stewardship NHS initiatives emphasise a multidisciplinary approach, involving clinicians, pharmacists, microbiologists, and infection control specialists to guide best practices. By implementing national stewardship policies, hospitals and GP practices can ensure antibiotic prescribing aligns with resistance patterns and clinical effectiveness, ultimately protecting public health.

Key Antimicrobial Stewardship Interventions:

• Optimising antibiotic prescriptions – Ensuring the right drug, dose, route, and duration are used for each infection.
• Monitoring antimicrobial resistance patterns – Tracking local and national resistance trends to guide treatment decisions.
• Education and training – Equipping healthcare professionals with knowledge on responsible prescribing and emerging resistance threats.
• Reviewing antibiotic use – Conducting audits to assess prescription appropriateness and adjust treatments as needed.
• Implementing hospital stewardship policies – Establishing guidelines and restrictions on high-risk antimicrobial use.

Final Thoughts

The impact of antimicrobial stewardship is critical in slowing antimicrobial resistance, improving patient outcomes, and preserving the effectiveness of current treatments. By ensuring the responsible use of antibiotics, healthcare systems can reduce the spread of drug-resistant infections and enhance overall public health.

Healthcare providers and policymakers play a key role in enforcing stewardship strategies, monitoring antibiotic use, and educating professionals on best practices. Continued commitment to evidence-based prescribing and surveillance is essential to maintaining the long-term success of antimicrobial stewardship programs worldwide.

How Core Prescribing Solutions Can Help

Antimicrobial stewardship is crucial for reducing resistance, improving patient outcomes, and ensuring responsible antibiotic use. By following evidence-based prescribing, monitoring antimicrobial use, and educating healthcare professionals, stewardship programs help preserve the effectiveness of treatments.

At Core Prescribing Solutions, we assist PCNs, GP practices, and healthcare providers in implementing effective medicines management and antimicrobial stewardship. Our clinical pharmacists and prescribing experts help optimise prescribing, ensure compliance, and improve patient safety. Contact us to learn how we can support stewardship efforts in your organisation.