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‘It makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the MicroGuide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in UK hospitals: an interview study

OBJECTIVES: To understand the impact on prescribing behaviour of an antimicrobial therapy guidelines smartphone app, in widespread use in hospitals in the UK. METHODS: Twenty-eight doctors and five nurse prescribers from four purposively selected hospitals in the UK participated in behavioural theor...

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Autores principales: Hand, Kieran S, Clancy, Bridget, Allen, Mike, Mayes, Amazigom, Patel, Yash, Latter, Susan M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8496772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34632385
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlab111
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author Hand, Kieran S
Clancy, Bridget
Allen, Mike
Mayes, Amazigom
Patel, Yash
Latter, Susan M
author_facet Hand, Kieran S
Clancy, Bridget
Allen, Mike
Mayes, Amazigom
Patel, Yash
Latter, Susan M
author_sort Hand, Kieran S
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To understand the impact on prescribing behaviour of an antimicrobial therapy guidelines smartphone app, in widespread use in hospitals in the UK. METHODS: Twenty-eight doctors and five nurse prescribers from four purposively selected hospitals in the UK participated in behavioural theory-informed semi-structured interviews about their experiences of using the MicroGuide™ smartphone app. Data were analysed using a thematic content analysis. RESULTS: Five themes emerged from the interview data: convenience and accessibility; validation of prescribing decisions; trust in app content; promotion of antimicrobial stewardship; and limitations and concerns. Participants appreciated the perceived convenience, accessibility and timesaving attributes of the app, potentially contributing to more prompt treatment of patients with time-critical illness. The interviewees also reported finding it reassuring to use the app to support decision-making and to validate existing knowledge. They trusted the app content authored by local experts and considered it to be evidence-based and up-to-date. This was believed to result in fewer telephone calls to the microbiology department for advice. Participants recognized the value of the app for supporting the goals of antimicrobial stewardship by promoting the responsible and proportionate use of antimicrobials. Finally, a number of limitations of the app were reported, including the risk of de-skilling trainees, cultural problems with using smartphones in clinical environments and software technical problems. CONCLUSIONS: The MicroGuide app was valued as a means of addressing an unmet need for updated, concise, trustworthy specialist information in an accessible format at the bedside to support safe and effective antimicrobial prescribing.
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spelling pubmed-84967722021-10-08 ‘It makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the MicroGuide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in UK hospitals: an interview study Hand, Kieran S Clancy, Bridget Allen, Mike Mayes, Amazigom Patel, Yash Latter, Susan M JAC Antimicrob Resist Original Article OBJECTIVES: To understand the impact on prescribing behaviour of an antimicrobial therapy guidelines smartphone app, in widespread use in hospitals in the UK. METHODS: Twenty-eight doctors and five nurse prescribers from four purposively selected hospitals in the UK participated in behavioural theory-informed semi-structured interviews about their experiences of using the MicroGuide™ smartphone app. Data were analysed using a thematic content analysis. RESULTS: Five themes emerged from the interview data: convenience and accessibility; validation of prescribing decisions; trust in app content; promotion of antimicrobial stewardship; and limitations and concerns. Participants appreciated the perceived convenience, accessibility and timesaving attributes of the app, potentially contributing to more prompt treatment of patients with time-critical illness. The interviewees also reported finding it reassuring to use the app to support decision-making and to validate existing knowledge. They trusted the app content authored by local experts and considered it to be evidence-based and up-to-date. This was believed to result in fewer telephone calls to the microbiology department for advice. Participants recognized the value of the app for supporting the goals of antimicrobial stewardship by promoting the responsible and proportionate use of antimicrobials. Finally, a number of limitations of the app were reported, including the risk of de-skilling trainees, cultural problems with using smartphones in clinical environments and software technical problems. CONCLUSIONS: The MicroGuide app was valued as a means of addressing an unmet need for updated, concise, trustworthy specialist information in an accessible format at the bedside to support safe and effective antimicrobial prescribing. Oxford University Press 2021-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8496772/ /pubmed/34632385 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlab111 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Hand, Kieran S
Clancy, Bridget
Allen, Mike
Mayes, Amazigom
Patel, Yash
Latter, Susan M
‘It makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the MicroGuide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in UK hospitals: an interview study
title ‘It makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the MicroGuide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in UK hospitals: an interview study
title_full ‘It makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the MicroGuide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in UK hospitals: an interview study
title_fullStr ‘It makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the MicroGuide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in UK hospitals: an interview study
title_full_unstemmed ‘It makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the MicroGuide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in UK hospitals: an interview study
title_short ‘It makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the MicroGuide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in UK hospitals: an interview study
title_sort ‘it makes life so much easier’—experiences of users of the microguide™ smartphone app for improving antibiotic prescribing behaviour in uk hospitals: an interview study
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8496772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34632385
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlab111
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