Educational interventions in antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial stewardship in undergraduate medical education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56200/mentor.v5i2.12319Keywords:
Antimicrobial resistance, Medical education, Antimicrobial stewardship, clinical microbiology, rational prescribingAbstract
Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health concern and poses a specific challenge for undergraduate medical education. This study aimed to analyze educational interventions on antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial stewardship for undergraduate medical students according to delivery modality, content, and evaluated outcomes. A scoping review was conducted following PRISMA-ScR. The search was performed in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost for the 2016–2026 period. Original studies in English or Spanish were included if they described primary educational interventions with evaluable outcomes. The search retrieved 360 records, and 14 primary studies were included in the final analysis. Of these, 6 interventions were classified as virtual or online, 2 as hybrid, 3 as in-person, and 3 as multimodal or self-directed. Reported outcomes were most often related to knowledge, perception, self-confidence, acceptance, and perceived usefulness, whereas evaluation of applied clinical performance was less frequent. The findings suggest a heterogeneous field and support the need for future interventions with more consistent evaluation of applied performance in undergraduate medical training.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Akova, M. (2016). Epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in bloodstream infections. Virulence, 7(3), 252–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2016.1159366
Davies, A. P. (2020). Evaluation of a novel antibiotic teaching resource. Medical Science Educator, 30(1), 107–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-00927-y
El-Sokkary, R. H., Badran, S. G., El Seifi, O. S., El-Fakharany, Y. M., & Elsaid Tash, R. M. (2023). Antibiotic prescribing etiquette: An elective course for medical students: Could we recruit potential physicians to fight resistance? BMC Medical Education, 23(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03949-9
Epstein, M., Doan, T.-L., Donaghy, H., Gautam-Goyal, P., Jezek, A., Kwiatkowski, T., Nori, P., Olvet, D. M., Schorr, A., & Willey, J. M. (2025). Introducing stewardship early: Development and evaluation of a multimodal curriculum for second-year medical students. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 12(12), ofaf685. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofaf685
Gozzer, E., Becerra-Chauca, N., Abba-Aji, M., Wirtz, V. J., Cordoba, G., Canchihuamán, F., Nagassar, R. P., Yañez-Diaz, S., Brou, P. S., Delgado-Flores, C. J., & Koya, S. F. (2025). Antimicrobial resistance interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean: A scoping review of reported interventions between 2018–2024. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 14(1), 137. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-025-01629-z
Launer, D. (2022). Can medical students do anything useful to support the antimicrobial resistance agenda?. JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, 4(5), dlac110. https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlac110
Laks, M., Morales Guerra, C., Miraglia, J. L., & Medeiros, E. A. (2019). Distance learning in antimicrobial stewardship: Innovation in medical education. BMC Medical Education, 19(1), 191. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1623-x
Malli, I. A., Mohamud, M. S., & Al-Nasser, S. (2023). Enhancing medical students’ confidence and knowledge in antibiotic prescription and administration through virtual education: A quasi-experimental study. Antibiotics, 12(10), 1546. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12101546
Naghavi, M., Vollset, S. E., Ikuta, K. S., Swetschinski, L. R., Gray, A. P., Wool, E. E., ... & Dekker, D. M. (2024). Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050. The Lancet, 404(10459), 1199–1226. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01867-1
Nowbuth, A. A., Steinsbekk, A. I., Wasteson, Y., Llarena, A.-K., & Parmar, V. S. (2025). Understanding antimicrobial resistance education among medical and veterinary students in Norway: A cross-sectional survey. JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, 7(6), dlaf211. https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlaf211
O’Donnell, L. A., & Guarascio, A. J. (2017). The intersection of antimicrobial stewardship and microbiology: Educating the next generation of health care professionals. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 364(1), fnw281. https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnw281
Orok, E., Ikpe, F., Williams, T., & Ekada, I. (2025). Impact of educational intervention on knowledge of antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic use patterns among healthcare students: A pre- and post-intervention study. BMC Medical Education, 25, 283. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-06856-x
Papan, C., Gärtner, B. C., Simon, A., Müller, R., Fischer, M. R., Darici, D., Becker, S. L., Last, K., & Bushuven, S. (2025). Stewards for future: Piloting a medical undergraduate elective on antimicrobial stewardship. GMS Journal for Medical Education, 42(1), Doc9. https://doi.org/10.3205/zma001733
Sayyadi-Rahaghi, N., Banafsheh, H., Abbasi, R., Jeddi, F. R., & Nabovati, E. (2023). Effect of e-learning on appropriate antibiotic prescribing by medical students: A quasi-experimental study during COVID-19 pandemic. International Archives of Health Sciences, 10(1), 14–19. https://doi.org/10.4103/iahs.iahs_69_22
Sikkens, J. J., Caris, M. G., Schutte, T., Kramer, M. H. H., Tichelaar, J., & van Agtmael, M. A. (2018). Improving antibiotic prescribing skills in medical students: The effect of e-learning after 6 months. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 73(8), 2243–2246. https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dky163
Stevens, N. T., Bruen, C., Boland, F., Pawlikowska, T., Fitzpatrick, F., & Humphreys, H. (2019). Is online case-based learning effective in helping undergraduate medical students choose the appropriate antibiotics to treat important infections? JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, 1(3), dlz081. https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlz081
Tsopra, R., Courtine, M., Sedki, K., Eap, D., Cabal, M., Cohen, S., Bouchaud, O., Mechaï, F., & Lamy, J.-B. (2020). AntibioGame®: A serious game for teaching medical students about antibiotic use. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 136, 104074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104074
Tulloch, L. G., Relan, A., Curello, J., Martin, E., Patel, R., & Vijayan, T. (2019). Using modified team-based learning to teach antimicrobial stewardship to medical students: One institution’s approach. Medical Science Educator, 29(4), 1179–1185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00804-3
Varghese, S. R., & Kwatra, G. (2023). Development and implementation of a self-directed learning module on antimicrobial resistance for Phase 2 MBBS students. Indian Journal of Pathology and Microbiology, 66(1), 129–134. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpm.ijpm_600_21
Wang, R., Degnan, K. O., Luther, V. P., Szymczak, J. E., Goren, E. N., Logan, A., Shnekendorf, R., & Hamilton, K. W. (2021). Development of a multifaceted antimicrobial stewardship curriculum for undergraduate medical education: The Antibiotic Stewardship, Safety, Utilization, Resistance, and Evaluation (ASSURE) elective. Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 8(6), ofab231. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofab231
Weeks, S., Drovandi, A., Turner, R., Garraghan, F., Shorten, R., Byrne-Davis, L., & Hart, J. (2026). A systematic review of antimicrobial stewardship education for undergraduate students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary science and midwifery using COM-B framework. JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, 8(1), dlaf245 https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlaf245
Wiese-Posselt, M., Saydan, S., Lâm, T.-T., Rörig, A., Bergmann, C., Becker, F., Kurzai, O., Feufel, M. A., & Schneider, S. (2025). Development and evaluation of a massive open online course (MOOC) to teach medical students the prudent use of antibiotics. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 14(1), 105. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-025-01640-4
World Health Organization. (2024). WHO bacterial priority pathogens list, 2024: Bacterial pathogens of public health importance to guide research, development and strategies to prevent and control antimicrobial resistance. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240093461
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Noé Velázquez-Márquez, Valeska Suárez Vázquez, Laura Brenda Carpinteyro Baez

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.





































+593987341121 Email: rjposso@revistamentor.ec