Knowledge, attitude, and practice of pharmacists towards stewardship program; a systematic review

Antimicrobials have a significant role in the treatment of a wide range of diseases. However, the misuse of antimicrobials is one of the factors contributing to the increase in the rate of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) involves a comprehensible set of interventions and actions to achieve a more prudent use for antimicrobials. Pharmacists have strategic roles in stewardship program, and they are responsible for reviewing individual patient regimens to optimize therapy. This review aimed to identify the knowledge, attitude, and practice of pharmacists regarding stewardship program by reviewing the previous studies that investigated this subject. Electronic databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Elsevier were explored to search for eligible research articles using different keywords, including AMS, Pharmacists, Knowledge, Awareness, Practice, Attitude, Level, Clinical pharmacists, Community pharmacists, and Stewardship program. The inclusion criteria were original articles conducted on pharmacists that investigated knowledge, attitude, and practice or any of the three items regarding the antimicrobial stewardship program. This systematic review included nine studies that met the inclusion criteria and were published between 2018 and 2023. The total number of pharmacists was 2011 pharmacists. Four studies investigated the three items, knowledge, attitude, and practice, whereas the remaining studies investigated one item or two only. In general, both knowledge and attitude were good among pharmacists regarding antimicrobial stewardship program, but the practice of pharmacists tended to be poor. However, the knowledge, attitude, and practice among pharmacists regarding AMS varied among different studies.