Clinician and Patient Education on FMT in CDI
Candace Cotto, RN, and Andrew Skinner, MD, discuss barriers to use of FMTs in managing CDI, highlighting clinician and patient education.
Stuart Johnson, MD: There's still some hesitancy to use FMT among clinicians in patients. What kind of education is needed to overcome this barrier?
Candace Cotto, RN: To speak with those providers that don't have a lot of experience with patients who have recurrent C diff and explain the whole burden and what the patient is going through and how easily they can be treated with FMT. That prevents the recurrence, again, and it prevents that whole horrible cycle that the patient goes through. Speak to them about not just doling out antibiotics at the drop of a hat. That's important. If we speak to more dentists who tend to throw it out there, orthopedic surgeons tend to throw it out there. Whether they need it or not, they give it preop; they give it postop. A lot of that education to those particular physicians is important.
Stuart Johnson, MD: Thank you.
Andrew Skinner, MD: Also to go on with that, on the other side of the clinician, it’s going to be the patient as well because we have run into a lot of different patients that we’ve seen at our clinic. They hear the word fecal and some treatment and they shy away from that at that point and say, ‘I don't want something like that,’ as well. So, it’s a bit of educating the patient about the fact that this isn't brand new. This is stuff that has been studied in great detail at this point and has been around for decades to where we have developed a greater understanding. The most important thing: it's FDA approved at this point as well and those are important things to pass on to each patient.
Transcript edited for clarity
