Educate clients to complete the full course of antibiotics
➡️ Clients should take antibiotics exactly as prescribed and follow the prescribed duration rather than independently stopping, skipping, or saving doses.
➡️ Inappropriate antibiotic use can expose bacteria to antimicrobial drugs without achieving the intended therapeutic effect.
➡️ Surviving bacteria may possess or acquire characteristics that allow them to withstand subsequent antimicrobial exposure.
➡️ Following the prescribed regimen supports effective treatment while reducing opportunities for selection of resistant organisms.
➡️ Clients should never save leftover antibiotics for a future illness or share prescribed antibiotics with another person.
➡️ Antibiotic therapy should also be reassessed when appropriate because some infections may require modification or discontinuation based on diagnostic findings.
➡️ Client education promotes antimicrobial stewardship by encouraging responsible medication use.
➡️ Appropriate adherence to the prescribed antibiotic regimen therefore contributes to reducing antimicrobial resistance.
Properly dispose of unused or expired antibiotics
➡️ Proper disposal prevents unused antibiotics from being taken later without an appropriate diagnosis or prescription.
➡️ Leftover antibiotics may encourage self-treatment using the wrong medication, dose, or duration.
➡️ Inappropriate antibiotic exposure contributes to selective pressure that promotes the survival of resistant bacteria.
➡️ Proper disposal also decreases the likelihood that antibiotics will be shared with family members or other individuals.
➡️ Expired medications should not be retained for future infections because their appropriate use cannot be assured.
➡️ Medication take-back programs or other locally approved disposal methods should be used when available.
➡️ Responsible disposal is therefore part of broader antimicrobial stewardship efforts.
➡️ Removing unnecessary antibiotics from households helps decrease opportunities for inappropriate antimicrobial use.
Prescribe narrow-spectrum antibiotics where possible
➡️ Narrow-spectrum antibiotics target a more limited range of microorganisms than broad-spectrum antibiotics.
➡️ Using the narrowest effective antimicrobial reduces unnecessary exposure of normal bacterial flora to antibiotic pressure.
➡️ Excessive broad-spectrum antibiotic use can select for resistant organisms across multiple bacterial populations.
➡️ Culture and susceptibility findings can help clinicians select a more targeted antimicrobial when appropriate.
➡️ Targeted therapy can effectively treat the causative organism while reducing unnecessary ecological disruption.
➡️ Narrow-spectrum therapy is therefore an important component of antimicrobial stewardship.
➡️ Selection must still consider the infection site, likely organism, client condition, and susceptibility information.
➡️ Prescribing the narrowest effective agent whenever clinically appropriate helps limit development and spread of resistance.
Minimize antibiotic use in livestock farming
➡️ Extensive antimicrobial use in food-producing animals can create selection pressure that favors resistant bacteria.
➡️ Resistant organisms or resistance genes can potentially spread through food systems, animals, humans, and the environment.
➡️ Avoiding unnecessary antimicrobial use in agriculture therefore contributes to controlling resistance beyond human healthcare settings.
➡️ Antibiotics should be used responsibly in animals when clinically indicated rather than unnecessarily for inappropriate purposes.
➡️ Coordinated antimicrobial stewardship recognizes the connection among human, animal, and environmental health.
➡️ This interconnected approach is commonly described through the One Health framework.
➡️ Reducing unnecessary agricultural antimicrobial exposure decreases opportunities for resistant organisms to emerge and proliferate.
➡️ Minimizing inappropriate antibiotic use in livestock therefore contributes to reducing antimicrobial resistance.