Antibiotic prescribing influenced by team dynamics within hospitals

Antibiotic prescribing by doctors is influenced by team dynamics and cultures within hospitals. This is the finding of a new study, led by Imperial College London, which highlights the need for understanding contextual differences in antibiotic decision making amongst medical and surgical teams. The work, funded by the National Institute for Health Research , the Economic and Social Research Council , and Public Health England , involved spending over 500 hours with medical and surgical teams and observing and documenting team and individual behaviours around decision making for antibiotic prescribing and infection management. Addressing behaviours related to antibiotic use across the surgical pathway (before, during and after surgery) is key to tackling important drivers of antimicrobial resistance Professor Alison Holmes Study author The researchers also interviewed 23 staff to get further insight of the challenges faced when prescribing antibiotics. This work is part of larger research programme that also considered patient outcomes of the differences in decision making across specialities, by following a group of patients in medicine and surgery. Dr Esmita Charani , senior pharmacist and leading the study, Imperial's Department of Medicine , said: "This research builds on our existing work, which focuses on trying to understand how human behaviours influence medical decision making. Understanding culture and context is highly relevant when trying to understand how and why interventions and policies fail to be implemented as expected.