Knowledge awareness and practice with antimicrobial stewardship programmes among healthcare providers in a Ghanaian Tertiary Hospital.

: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant problem in global health today, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) where antimicrobial stewardship programmes are yet to be successfully implemented. We established a partnership between AMR pharmacists leads from a UK NHS hospital and in Ho Teaching Hospital with the aim to by enhance antimicrobial stewardship knowledge and practice among healthcare providers through an educational intervention. We employed a mixed method approach including an initial before and after training survey on knowledge and awareness, followed by qualitative interviews with healthcare providers conducted six months after delivery of training. This study was carried out in Ho teaching hospital with 18 healthcare professionals including pharmacists, medical doctors, nurses and medical laboratory scientists. Ethical approval was obtained prior to data collection. In the first phase, we surveyed 50 health care providers including nurses (33%), pharmacists (29%) and biomedical scientists (23%). Of these, 58% of participants had engaged in continuous professional development on AMR/AMS, and above 95% demonstrated good knowledge on the general use of antibiotics. A total of 18 participants, which included 4 medical doctors, 5 pharmacists, 4 nurses, 2 midwives and 3 biomedical scientists, were interviewed in the second stage and demonstrated greater awareness of AMS practices, particularly the role of education for patients as well as healthcare professionals. We found that knowledge and practice with AMS was markedly improved six months after the training session. There is limited practice of AMS in LMICs, however through AMR focused training we demonstrate improved AMS skills and practice among health care providers in Ho Teaching hospital. There is need for continuous AMR training sessions for health care professionals in resource limited settings.