Assessing NICU Stewardship Needs in South Africa
Pavel Prusakov, PharmD, highlights how he educated pharmacists from South Africa to lead antimicrobial stewardship programs in the NICU with Pablo J. Sánchez, MD, and Debra Goff, PharmD.
Segment Description: Pavel Prusakov, PharmD, NICU clinical coordinator, in the Department of Pharmacy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital highlights how he educated pharmacists from South Africa to lead NICU antimicrobial stewardship programs.
Interview transcript: (modified slightly for readability)
So Debbie [Goff] and I went to South Africa to assess the educational needs of pharmacists to participate in antimicrobial stewardship programs and to become really an integral part of it in South Africa. When we went to some of the units, what I saw is that they use last line antibiotics pretty much on a daily basis, whereas for me, in my career, I've never seen colistin use in a NICU. So that was very striking to me.
We picked 4 pharmacists to be thought leaders in South Africa and took them to train with me at Nationwide Children's and to see how the antimicrobial stewardship program for our NICUs run. We have 7 NICUs across the city of Columbus, covering over 290 NICU beds. Those pharmacists trained with me to really understand how pharmacists can make a difference and antimicrobial stewardship program in their own country and lead the efforts in their country for everybody else and educate all the other pharmacists.
