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In recent years, health partnerships have shared infection prevention and control (IPC) innovations between United Kingdom (UK) hospitals and Low-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). However, none had focused on antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), a core component of tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This paper documents an effective approach to developing a programme to increase antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) capacity in four African countries: Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia as part of the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS) programme. A systematic approach was applied to assess gaps in AMS interventions and inform development of the CwPAMS programme through desk-based assessments, including of National Action Plans on AMR, online focus group meetings, and expert advisory group reviews. Twelve partnerships were selected for the CwPAMS programme. AMS support tools were developed based on recommendations from the scoping, including an AMS checklist tool, a healthcare worker knowledge and attitudes questionnaire, and an antimicrobial prescribing app to support clinical decision making. Training workshops on AMS were developed and delivered to volunteers in Africa and the UK using a train the trainer model. The tools and workshops facilitated capacity building for AMS through the generation and strengthening of knowledge, skills, commitment, structures, systems, and leadership among stakeholders in the UK and Africa. The overall score assigned to the programme following evaluation using the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) Evaluation Criteria was 82% (very good).

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) initiatives promote the responsible use of antimicrobials in healthcare settings as a key measure to curb the global threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Defining the core elements of AMS is essential for developing and evaluating comprehensive AMS programmes. This project used co-creation and Delphi-consensus procedures to adapt and extend the existing published international AMS checklist. The overall objective was to arrive at a contextualised checklist of core AMS elements and key behaviours for use within healthcare settings in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as to implement the checklist in health institutions in four African countries.Method:The AMS checklist tool was developed using a modified Delphi approach to achieve local, expert consensus on items to be included on the checklist. Fourteen healthcare/public health professionals from Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, and Ghana were invited to review, score and comment on items from a published, global AMS checklist. Following their feedback, eight items were re-phrased and 25 new items added to the checklist. The final AMS checklist tool was deployed across 19 healthcare sites and used to assess AMS programmes before and after an AMS intervention in 14 of the 19 sites.Findings: The final tool comprised 54 items. Across the 14 sites, the checklist consistently showed improvements for all AMS components following the intervention. The greatest improvements observed were the presence of formal multidisciplinary AMS structures (79%) and the execution of a point-prevalence survey (72%). Elements with the least improvement were access to laboratory/imaging services (7%) and the presence of adequate financial support for AMS (14%). In addition to capturing quantitative and qualitative changes associated with the AMS intervention, project evaluation suggested that administering the AMS checklist made unique contributions to ongoing AMS activities. Furthermore, 29 additional AMS activities were reported as a direct result of the prompting checklist questions.Conclusion: Contextualised, co-created AMS tools are necessary for managing antimicrobial use across healthcare settings and increasing local AMS ownership and commitment. This study led to the development of a new AMS checklist which proved successful in capturing AMS improvements in Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, and Ghana. The tool also made unique contributions to furthering local AMS efforts. The study extends existing AMS materials for low and middle-income countries and provides empirical evidence for successful use in practice.

Background: Engaging the youth in the activities of health organizations is an imperative to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The International Pharmaceutical Federation Young Pharmacists Group (FIP YPG) was formally launched in 2001 to increase the engagement of young pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists. Additionally, this was set up to foster their potential for leadership within the various Sections and Special Interest Groups of FIP in the areas of pharmacy practice, pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy education. With the new ONE FIP strategy, achieving the goal of advancing pharmacy together as ONE organization, FIP and FIP YPG looked into the needs and expectations of its members in order to better align with FIP's goals and its members' needs to achieve synergy and amplify outcomes. Objectives: FIP YPG carried out a needs-assessment survey to explore the needs and expectations of its members in order to better align FIP's goals and its members' needs. Methods: An online survey was conducted between 1 May 2019 and 2 June 2019 to the members of FIP YPG. Invitations to complete the questionnaire were sent out by email to all FIP YPG members. The questionnaire included participant demographics; satisfaction on current FIP YPG activities, participation in FIP YPG activities; preferred activities of FIP YPG; expectations from FIP YPG and presence of national/regional YPG in the members’ respective geographies. Results: The survey elicited a response rate of 37.25%. Sixty-seven percent of members were satisfied with current FIP YPG activities. The most preferred activity and the main reason for joining the organization was ‘networking opportunities.’ ‘Newsletter’ (as a reader) was the most common resource selected by participants (71%). Newsletters were also the preferred platform for communication (75.32%). ‘International YPG conference’ was found to be the focus of members' preference (59.49%). Nearly a majority FIP YPG members preferred webinars focused on ‘Career development’ (44.94%). The preferred type of project to be involved in were ‘Inter-professional collaboration projects’ (45.57%). ‘Exploration of opportunities and incentives for implementing new professional services’ was found to be the preferred topic for research survey (33.54%). Conclusion: FIP YPG members' needs were descriptively analysed for the purpose of better alignment of the organization's goals with members' goals. Networking, collaborations, career and leadership development and effective communication, among other aspects, were found to be the main interests of the members surveyed. The survey findings have been employed in the development of strategic plans for FIP YPG members and how FIP YPG can be an effective launching platform for the future roles in FIP. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Accepted abstracts under the theme: PHARMACY PRACTICE RESEARCH (n=92)

This review, commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), examined the effectiveness of the WHO 6-step hand hygiene (HH) technique in reducing microbial load on hands and covering hand surfaces, and compared its effectiveness to other techniques.Medline, CINAHL, ProQuest, Web of Science, Mednar, and Google Scholar were searched for primary studies, published in English (1978-February 2021), evaluating the microbiological effectiveness or hand surface coverage of HH techniques in healthcare workers. Reviewers independently performed quality assessment using Cochrane tools. The protocol for the narrative review was registered (PROSPERO 2021: CRD42021236138).Nine studies were included. Evidence demonstrated that the WHO technique reduced microbial load on hands. One study found the WHO technique more effective than the 3-step technique (P = .02), while another found no difference between these 2 techniques (P = .08). An adapted 3-step technique was more effective than the WHO technique in laboratory settings (P = .021), but not in clinical practice (P = .629). One study demonstrated that an adapted 6-step technique was more effective than the WHO technique (P = .001). Evidence was heterogeneous in application time, product, and volume. All studies were high risk of bias.Eight studies found that the WHO 6-step technique reduced microbial load on healthcare workers' hands; but the studies were heterogeneous and further research is required to identify the most effective, yet feasible technique.

BackgroundStudies show that clinical pharmacy services are effective in optimizing medicines use and patients’ outcomes. This study aimed to determine the clinical pharmacy services provided in public sector hospitals in Nigeria.MethodsThis was an online survey of 296 primary, secondary and tertiary care hospitals sampled purposively across the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria. Data analysis was conducted descriptively, and via Chi-square test and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).Key findingsResponses were obtained from 272 hospitals in the country with a survey completion rate of 88%. This included 55 tertiary, 72 secondary, and 145 primary healthcare centres (PHCs). Pharmacists provided pharmaceutical care services in all the tertiary care hospitals, 94% of the secondary, and in only 6% of the PHCs surveyed. The composition of the pharmacy department per level of care was similar across the six geopolitical regions (V = 0.383, F = 1.453, P = 0.06) with more pharmacy staff employed in the tertiary care hospitals compared to the secondary care facilities. The majority (≥75%) of the tertiary and secondary care hospitals provided medicines information, patient education and counselling, alongside in- and outpatient dispensing services. However, fewer than 30% reported routine pharmacists’ involvement in multidisciplinary ward rounds, medication chart review, therapeutic guidelines development, antibiotic stewardship programmes, and drug therapy monitoring. Pharmacists routinely provided medication error reporting services in only about half of the hospitals in the sample, and this was not associated with the level of care (p > 0.05).ConclusionsThe findings of this study demonstrate disparity in clinical pharmacy service availability across the various levels of care in Nigeria. It also highlights the need to scale up and prioritize their integration within the primary care sector.

BackgroundThe declaration of COVID-19 a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on the 11March 2020 marked the beginning of a global health crisis of an unprecedented natureand scale. The approach taken by countries across the world varied widely, however,the delivery of frontline healthcare was consistently recognised as being central to thepandemic response. This study aimed to identify and explore the issues currentlyfacing pharmacy teams across Commonwealth countries during the COVID-19pandemic. The study also evaluates pharmacy professionals’ understanding of keyknowledge areas from the COVID-19 webinar hosted by the CommonwealthPharmacists’ Association ( CPA) on 5 th June 2020.MethodA quantitative survey-based approach was adopted, using a 32-item questionnairedeveloped from the literature on pharmacy and pandemic response. The survey washosted on Survey Monkey and pilot tested. The final survey was disseminated by CPAmember organisations. A 6-item online questionnaire was sent via email to allattendees of CPA's COVID-19 webinar. Descriptive statistics on frequency distributionsand percentages were used to analyse the responses. Data were analysed usingMicrosoft® Excel (2010).ResultsThere were 545 responses from pharmacy professionals across 31/54 commonwealthcountries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific. Majority of therespondents reported being at least somewhat worried (90%) and more than 65% werevery worried or extremely about the impact of COVID-19 on them personally andprofessionally. Nearly two-thirds of respondents stated finding it somewhat difficult orvery difficult to work effectively during the pandemic. Challenges mostly faced bypharmacy professionals working remotely included; general anxiety about the impact ofCOVID-19 on their lives (12%), and difficulties in communicating with their co-workers(12%). Most pharmacy professionals had not previously been actively involved in aglobal health emergency (82%) nor obtained training on global/public healthemergency preparedness (62%). Between 45% to 97% of the COVID-19 webinarattendees provided the correct answers to post-webinar questions, suggesting someimprovement in knowledge.ConclusionOur study confirms pharmacy professional’s concerns about practice during apandemic and provides preliminary data on the challenges and learning needs of theprofession. The CPA has since acted on these findings, providing on-goingopportunities to develop and refine resources for the profession as the pandemicevolves. Pharmacy professionals have also demonstrated improved knowledge on themanagement of COVID-19 and resources available for professionals.