Impact of Antimicrobial Stewardship Resources on Companion Animal Veterinarians' Intention and Capability to Prescribe Fewer Antimicrobial Drugs

PROJECT SUMMARYSince any antimicrobial drug use has the potential to increase resistance a key goal is to alignantimicrobial drug use (AU) with the prescribing guidelines in veterinary settings. Awarenessalone is inadequate to achieve concordance with prescribing guidelines since other factorssuch as perceived pressure to prescribe by clients hospital culture and a lack of confidence incommunicating with clients have been described as barriers to judicious use. Information islacking on the impact of available educational resources to reduce veterinarian's intentions toprescribe antibiotics as well as their confidence that they can align their prescribing to ASprinciples. An area of identified antimicrobial overuse in companion animal medicine is canineacute diarrhea for which up to 70% of veterinarians have been reported to prescribe or intendto prescribe metronidazole. These factors make it a crucial area for testing the impact oftargeted resources designed to persuade veterinarians to reduce antimicrobial use. To foster antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary settings using training or educationtools we will use the Theory of Planned Behavior to quantify the knowledge attitude subjectivenorm (perceived social pressure regarding guidelines) and perceived behavioral control(perceived ability to follow the guideline) related to prescribing metronidazole for dogs with acommon medical condition (i.e. acute diarrhea). We will explore whether a short educationalvideo on antimicrobial stewardship or a summary of evidence-based guidance withaccompanying citations can impact veterinarians' opinions on prescribing antibiotics for canineacute diarrhea and define characteristics of antimicrobial use resources that veterinariansidentify as effective in changing their intention to reduce antimicrobial prescribing for canineacute diarrhea. The impact of these resources will be assessed using a cross-sectional survey ofcompanion animal veterinarians in the United States randomized to 3 arms (no resourceeducational video summary of evidence-based guidance) followed by focus groups withparticipants drawn from each group to define which aspects of AS resources are effective inreducing veterinarians' intent to prescribe antimicrobial drugs. The outcome of these aims willfacilitate a greater understanding of the potential impact of AS resources on aligning veterinaryAU with AS guidelines and inform further research into the creation and implementation ofresources to companion animal veterinarians to further the goals of antimicrobial stewardship.