Does the addition of a face-to-face educational session to an online continuing medical education module improve vancomycin prescribing and monitoring knowledge?

Despite the introduction of newer agents for the treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin remains the treatment of choice for infection with this organism. Optimising the use of vancomycin with appropriate prescribing and monitoring may offer a way to extend the life of this important antibiotic. To influence behavioral change in junior medical officers regarding antimicrobial prescribing, education is important to limit the influence of inappropriate prescribing that may emanate from senior clinicians.1 Educating junior doctors on prescribing and monitoring of antibiotics such as vancomycin is a strategy which may improve doctors’ knowledge and clinical practice with vancomycin.
Improved knowledge in the prescribing and monitoring of vancomycin may enable patients to readily achieve known target concentrations for therapeutic effect, while limiting subtherapeutic concentrations associated with the emergence of antibiotic resistance while minimising unnecessary delays in the resolution of infection.