LAUSR

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the participation and the barriers to hospital pharmacists' participation in antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) in Nigerian tertiary hospitals. METHODS A cross sectional nationwide online survey was conducted over six weeks period between May and June 2019. Invitation was sent to all the Heads of Pharmacy department or pharmacist in charge of the Infectious Disease (ID) or antimicrobial pharmacist. A validated questionnaire consisting of 24-item were used for data collection. RESULTS Forty five hospitals were invited and 37 completed the survey (response rate: 82.2%). Only 5 (13.5%) hospitals had a formal antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) team with each of them having pharmacist representation. Regardless of the existence of AMS team, most hospital pharmacists executed AMS strategy including evaluating the appropriateness of antimicrobial prescriptions (54.1%) and monitoring antimicrobial consumption (48.6%). The most common barriers to pharmacists' involvement in ASP were lack of education and training in AMS and ID (51.4%), lack of pharmacists with ID specialization (40.5%) and lack of support from hospital administrators (37.8%). Majority of the respondents recommended training in AMS and ID (100%), participation in ward rounds (89.2%) and employment of more pharmacists (73%) as strategies to improve pharmacist's participation in ASP. CONCLUSIONS Hospital pharmacists are actively involved in AMS activities despite the lack of established AMS team in most tertiary hospitals. However, lack of training and personnel are major barrier to their involvement in ASP.