Antibiotic Awareness Week Is Coming! How Will YOU Raise Awareness??

CDC has designated November 13-19, 2017 as Antibiotic Awareness Week.  Formerly known as Get Smart About Antibiotic Week, the goal of this one-week observance is to raise awareness of appropriate antibiotic use in the United States.

The CDC has suggested a list of activities to promote appropriate antibiotic use which include:

• Highlight US Antibiotic Awareness Week on your website
• Use Antibiotic Awareness Week to kickoff your stewardship program
• Issue a press release
• Distribute educational materials on appropriate antibiotic use to the general public
• Distribute tools and guidelines to healthcare professionals
• Host local events
• Deliver presentations to interested parties
• Post social media messages and participate in the annual Twitter chat
• Share information with your organization’s membership through email or newsletters
• Include content in employee materials

Which of these activities will your facility adopt during Antibiotic Awareness Week? Need ideas? Check out this post from our Nebraska ASAP team for links to resources!

During the Antibiotic Awareness Week, a collaborative blog post from UNMC ID/ASP and Nebraska ASAP will be published each day between November 13 and 17.  The list of blog post topics will include:

• Monday, 11/13: Introduction to antimicrobial stewardship program and Nebraska Medicine/UNMC/ASAP accomplishments that will be highlighted in subsequent blog posts
• Tuesday, 11/14: Antimicrobial stewardship in hospitals
• Wednesday, 11/15: Antimicrobial stewardship in long-term care facilities
• Thursday, 11/16: Antimicrobial stewardship in critical access hospitals and role of pharmacists
• Friday, 11/17: Antimicrobial stewardship in outpatient clinics

We at Nebraska ASAP and UNMC ID/ASP are excited about the upcoming Antibiotic Awareness Week during November 13 to 19.  We hope you and your facility will fully participate in activities promoting appropriate antibiotic use.

Links to UNMC ASP and Nebraska ASAP are listed below:

UNMC ASP

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Content courtesy of Phil Chung, the Nebraska ASAP and UNMC ID/ASP.