CURRENT PLEDGES: 195936
Shared Learning Archive 2017-2019: Children and Family
Projects that have focused on educating children and their families to tackle antimicrobial resistance
2019 Entries
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
Provide a brief overview of your project?
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust invited local schools to participate in a competition to raise awareness of Antimicrobial Resistance as part of World Antibiotic Awareness Week. The children were asked to design a poster or a comic strip about the topic or to create a dance / rap / song. We also invited the schools to participate in our Message in a Bottle Antibiotic Guardian Activity. Suggested resources and information were provided to the schools for guidance. The idea was that the schools would be provided with a large clear bottle to be filled with pledges signed by the students, teachers and parents, and then circulated to the next school to spread awareness throughout the local schools and communities.
The pledges provided to the schools were:
• I pledge to sing the ABC song when washing my hands with soap and water. Washing hands properly (at least 30 seconds), especially before eating, is the single best way to prevent the spread of infection.
• I will visit the E-BUG website (www.e-bug.eu) with my friends and take one of the antibiotic awareness quizzes together.
• If anyone in my family is prescribed antibiotics, I will ensure they are taken exactly as prescribed and never shared with others.
• If the NHS offers a flu vaccination for individuals in my family, we pledge to accept.
A school assembly was undertaken by one of the Anti-Infectives Pharmacists using some of the e-bug tools to explain the concepts of AMR.
Winners of the Best Rap, Best Poster (Years 1-3 and 4-6), Best Comic Strip and Best Song and Dance, along with their parents and teachers, were invited to the hospital for an afternoon of prize giving and celebration of the excellent work produced by the children.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
The Message in a Bottle Antibiotic Guardian activity invited the teachers, students and their parents to get involved by signing the pledges spreading awareness beyond the children alone.
The competition of creating a song / dance / rap brought creativity and fun to a very important issue and the children now have an awareness of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and the need to protect antibiotics.
As a result of participating in the competition, special lessons and assemblies were held at the schools focussing on the correct use of antibiotics. Teachers also informed us that the posters produced by the students have been used throughout schools to display important messages, particularly in toilet areas.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
We have recently been awarded funding for the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme and intend to ask partners in Uganda to join our local school campaign and participate in promoting similar activities this year.
NHS Orkney
Provide a brief overview of your project?
This County-wide challenge badge was designed to help raise awareness across the spectrum of Girlguiding members from Rainbows (ages 5-7) to the Trefoil Guild (adult members age 18+) of antimicrobial resistance and why it, and infection control, is important in a fun – and challenging – way.
The challenge consisted of five sections: Meet the microbe, Spreading bugs, Antibiotics & Antibiotic Resistance, Become an Antibiotic Guardian and Sepsis. To gain the challenge badge girls needed to have carried out the demonstration in, and completed at least one activity from, each section.
Each section included demonstrations to increase knowledge about the topic and activities for girls to choose from. As far as possible these activities were section (i.e. age) specific to ensure their appropriateness but there were also some activities that were appropriate across all sections. Wherever possible it was tried to explicitly link the activities to the themes of the new guiding programme to encourage uptake within units. The local antimicrobial pharmacist and one of the infection control nurses (both involved in local guiding) visited units on request to help facilitate and run the challenge with the girls and their leaders.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
- The challenge was undertaken by several guiding units across Orkney and the North of Scotland covering a wide range of ages (5-16 years old) and their leaders (>100 girls).
2. The challenge received press coverage in weekend edition of the Press and Journal (regional newspaper covering northern and highland Scotland, circulation approx. 48,000) getting the AMR message out to a much wider audience.
3. Significant interest was shown in the challenge from other NHS Scotland colleagues as many are Scout and Guide leaders themselves.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
A national joint Girlguiding and Scout badge is being developed which will use work done with this badge as part of the development process
South Gloucestershire Council
Provide a brief overview of your project
The aim of the e-Bug project was to promote infection prevention and control (IPC) and antibiotic resistance (ABR) within schools. The project promoted the Public Health England e-Bug training package for teachers and children, at four pilot schools in South Gloucestershire.
The project ran in the academic year 2017- 2018, with four primary schools taking part. Schools received the e-Bug teacher training in the following e-Bug modules:
• Introduction to Microbes
• Hand Hygiene
• Respiratory Hygiene
• Antibiotics Awareness
The pilot schools were given flexibility in how to implement the e-Bug modules and run the project, in order to assess the measurable outcomes they were hoping to achieve, through their Health in Schools silver award.
Schools selected pupils by class/ year group or targeted pupils with high sickness absence rates. Some schools also ran whole school assemblies using the e-Bug materials, for wider awareness raising. One school ran a parent workshop, where pupils demonstrated their learning.
Preliminary findings from the teacher surveys were overall very positive; teacher and students enjoyed and engaged in the e-Bug activities, teachers felt the e-Bug resources were easy to use, , and saw an improvement in students’ appropriate health behaviours i.e. hand washing before lunchtime.
159 pupils completed pre-learning questionnaires across the four pilot schools. One school completed learning for two modules only; Hand Hygiene and Respiratory Hygiene. The other three schools completed all four modules.
Across all modules 95% of pupils improved or maintained their level of knowledge after the e-Bug teaching. The modules where the most significant improved learning took place was:
• Antibiotics Awareness – 77% knowledge increase
• Respiratory Hygiene – 67% knowledge increase
One school successfully measured behaviour change comparing how much hand soap was used in the pupil toilets in the term before the e-Bug intervention, and the term after.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
- Increased student knowledge and understanding of infectious causes of disease (microbiology); principles and practice of infection prevention and control; and the concept and prevention of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – as per NICE guideline 63: Antimicrobial stewardship: changing risk-related behaviours in the general population• Promoting interactive learning through school will promote cultural and behavioural change needed to address key health protection issues, including the prevention of illness, prevention of infectious disease/ infectious disease spread, and AMR. Antimicrobial stewardship: changing risk-related behaviours in the general population• The project supported the South Gloucestershire Health in Schools work programme, supporting further partnership and collaborative working.
The project supports the approach to adopt a joint working strategy with colleagues across the local health community and will meet joint objectives and continue to develop and build strong networks. A multi-sectoral approach to tackling AMR is required.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
Following the success of the pilot project, colleagues at South Gloucestershire Council are running another project promoting e-Bug in schools. This project will aim to measure behaviour change through soap use before and after the intervention, across all participating schools. Pupil learning before and after the teaching will also be captured, and data analysed.
The project design will follow a cluster randomised crossover approach, where half of the participating schools receive the e-Bug teacher training and deliver the intervention in schools, to be compared with the remaining schools who are not yet running the intervention.
By the end of the project all participating schools will have received the e-Bug teacher training and delivered the intervention in their schools.
2018 Entries
Berkshire Antimicrobial Stewardship Group
Provide a brief overview of your project:
The AMS group agreed on hand hygiene as the key message for a single issue campaign for 2017 WAAD / EAAW. It was agreed that this was a simple message that was relevant to health professionals and the public and was especially relevant to children and families who are often most at risk of GI and other infections.
The campaign had three elements;
- a) a suite of three letters targeting families, care home workers and residents and health professionals was created. There letters were sent to all primary schools, care homes and cascaded to health professionals through CCG and NHS Trust Comms.
- b) Slough Borough Council PH Team and the AMS group engaged with a primary school that had experienced a GI outbreak to deliver a hand-washing assembly to the whole school. Children heard about how good hand washing before eating and after going to the toilet removes bugs that can make them sick and can stop them needing medicines. Children also got to see how good they were at washing their hands using a light box. Children from the school starred in a hand-washing video which has now been shared with other primary schools and made available to other partners across Berkshire. The head-teacher was provided with the e-bug KS1 pack.
- c) NHS organisations championed hand-washing as part of their organisational WAAW activities.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
- Entire primary school attended the assembly and learned about how washing hands before meals and after the toilet removes the bugs that make you sick and stops you needing medicine.
- Head-teacher received the e-bug lesson plans
- A letter was sent to all primary schools highlighting how hand hygiene is an important tool in reducing infections and preserving antibiotics.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
- The video made by the children has been shared with other schools across Berkshire.
- The AMS Group will invite local stakeholders who are interested in becoming e-bug leads to take part in a train the trainer session.
- The AMS Group have developed an assembly pack for primary schools using the e-bug resources and aim to work with stakeholders who have received e-bug training to offer the assembly in local primary schools.
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
Provide a brief overview of your project:
We emailed all the primary and secondary schools in Buckinghamshire and invited students to design a poster to “Keep Antibiotics Working”. We sign-posted the Junior and Family Antibiotic Guardian, eBug and the National media AMR campaign resources. All entries were displayed throughout public areas of the hospital during World Antibiotic Awareness Week and some have continued to be displayed. One winner from each of the categories (Early Years; Infant; Junior; Senior) was awarded a Giant Microbe and some chocolates during a prize giving ceremony at the hospital. Each winner was invited to attend together with parents and teachers.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
We received over 300 posters much to our surprise although only about 8 schools entered. We also received personal messages from teachers informing us that they had linked this competition into teaching sessions for example around Louis Pasteur. One school arranged an outside speaker to talk about the importance of infection prevention. Two pharmacists from the hospital attended the nursery on site to perform some “hand washing experiments” using glitter and pepper in water and taught the children the hand washing song.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
We would like to do something similar next year in response to the positive feedback received and are thinking about a “Build a Bug” project where by students can create a bug model which demonstrates some mechanisms of resistance, e.g. efflux pump.
Centre of Excellence for Public Health Northern Ireland
Provide a brief overview of your project:
Engaging school children with antibiotic awareness: This was a collaboration initiated by the Public Health Agency (http://www.publichealth.hscni.net/) with the Centre of Excellence for Public Health Northern Ireland (https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/CentreofExcellenceforPublicHealthNorthernIreland/) to pilot the implementation of the E-bug (http://www.e-bug.eu/) resources in Northern Ireland Schools. The aim of the project was to educate children on anti-microbial resistance and appropriate antibiotic use and therefore influence parental behaviour and knowledge in this regard.
To achieve this we introduced the children to the concept of microbes and developed the idea of good and bad microbes to help the children to differentiate between the various types of viral, bacterial and fungal infections and to dispel some common myths surrounding antibiotic use. We then built on this new acquired knowledge by introducing the concept of antimicrobial resistance and the actions the children (and their parents) could take to reduce the burden of this issue.
We chose to first pilot the E-bug activities in a Northern Ireland primary school (Templepatrick Primary School). We undertook two visits (2 x 1 hour sessions), two weeks apart to two primary 6 (Key-stage 2) classes (n=60 children). In the first visit we followed the e-bug activities 1.1 Introduction to microorganisms and 1.3 harmful microbes. In the return visit we consolidated this prior learning with activity 4.1 (treatment of infections: Antibiotic use and medicine) including an introduction to antimicrobial resistance.
Given the very positive feedback of this material from the Primary 6 teachers and pupils we also sought to pilot the programme in one of the province’s special schools (Longstone Special School), for children and young adults with moderate learning difficulties. A school leaver’s class was selected and we modified the delivery for this setting with less didactic teaching and a primary focus on hands on activities to augment new learning.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
Bacteria are becoming resistant to the antibiotics that are currently available – meaning that the few antibiotics that we have developed in our arsenal may be ineffective for the same infection in that individual in the future. The issue with antibiotic resistance has arisen primarily due to the overuse and misuse of antibiotics.
Example 1: Good Hand hygiene. We used a UV light and ‘Glo germ’ kit and ‘snot gun’ activity to visually demonstrate the spread of microbes (and potentially resistant bacteria) to other people. We emphasised the ‘six step approach’ to handwashing and the importance of washing your hands before, during and after food preparation/eating, after using the bathroom, after being near animals or animal waste, after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose, and when you are unwell or around other people who are sick.
Example 2: Antibiotic use and resistance. Following the guidelines of the e-bugs materials (section 4.1) we talked the children through various scenarios, allowing them to decide on the causal agent (i.e.: virus/bacteria/fungus) and hence the appropriate form of treatment for the specific infection. We highlighted the potential for antimicrobial resistance to arise if antibiotics were misused i.e.: by not finishing the prescribed course (leaving residual bacteria to develop resistance to the antibiotic), and taking antibiotics inappropriately i.e.: for a viral infection, or sharing antibiotics with family members/friends. In an interactive activity balloons were used to demonstrate the principle of antibiotic resistance (duct tape applied to balloon) and antibiotic treatment (pin used to burst balloon/bacterial cell wall).
Example 3: Superbugs – Longitude Prize Game. Using iPads, this addictive and competitive game, was used to highlight the problem of antimicrobial resistance and the importance of keeping our current supply of antibiotics working for as long as possible. The children/team with the highest longevity scores (antibiotic champions) were acknowledged in the class.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
The Public Health Agency have been working from an early stage in this project with the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) to map the e-bugs resources onto the Northern Ireland curriculum. The long-term aim of this project is to have the usual teachers in the primary/secondary school settings deliver the e-bugs resources themselves, as has already been successfully attained in other parts of the UK.
To build the capacity to achieve this aim, the Public Health Agency have arranged for members of the original e-bugs team to come to Northern Ireland for a few days in June 2018 to facilitate two workshops (‘teach the teacher’ events) one in Cookstown and one in Belfast. These will provide Northern Ireland teachers with an introduction and overview of the e-bugs resources and a run through of the various interactive activities involved.
Plans are also in place to formally evaluate the e-bugs resources in various school settings and key-stage levels, engaging researchers from the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work and the Centre for Public Health in Queen’s in conjunction with the Public Health Agency Northern Ireland.
Leicestershire Scouts
Provide a brief overview of your project:
Two antimicrobial pharmacists (Ryan Hamilton and Emma Cramp), a local Scout leader and community pharmacist (Louise Bailey), and the deputy commissioner for Leicestershire Scouts (Lyn Rowe) produced an interactive “programme on a plate” that has been distributed to Scout leaders across Leicestershire. The programme is delivered through fun, interactive, activities so children learn through play, rather than traditional teaching methods. Participants learn about hygiene, preventing the transmission of infection, the appropriate use of antibiotics, and how to protect antibiotics for the future.
The programme includes the following activities and learning, inspired by materials from e-Bug alongside original activities:
- A game to demonstrate the spread of germs and disease.
- Seeing how far and fast a sneeze can travel including the importance of sneezing into a tissue and washing hands afterwards.
- Using UV disclosing gel to learn how to wash hands properly (singing happy birthday twice and using the 5 moments of hand washing).
- Finally, for the Cubs and Scouts, using colour changing science to show antibiotics only work for bacterial infections and not for viral infections.
The final activity of the session involves watching the keep antibiotics working advert and asking the children to write a unique pledge about how they will keep antibiotics working, based on what they have learned during the session. The children are also asked to produce a Keep Antibiotics Working poster at home then bring it back to be awarded the Antibiotic Guardian badge.
The first sessions saw over 60 children being awarded the Antibiotic Guardian Badge. A train-the-trainer session was held in February, showing scout leaders the session and activities in action so they can deliver the session with their own groups. The programme has already been delivered to another 75 children, with over 200 more planned to participate.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
- Children learned about how far and fast sneezes travel, and how this can spread germs and illness. They were taught about Catch it, Bin it, Kill it and this was linked to handwashing. UV disclosing gel was used to demonstrate how standard hand washing did not remove all dirt and germs and how the correct method (following RPS, WHO and NHS guidance) was better. The children discussed when they should wash their hands, and how this can prevent them from getting ill and therefore needing antibiotics in the first place.
- Appropriate use of antibiotics was taught using a pH indicator and giving each child a common viral or bacterial illness (colour change observed). They were all given antibiotics and those with bacterial infections were cured (as shown be reversal of the colour change). A viral illness was given lots of antibiotics but was still not cured (no further colour change). Children then discussed that overuse of antibiotics when they are not needed can mean the germs become immune/resistant to the antibiotics. Towards the end this activity the children discuss and learn not to go to the GP demanding antibiotics for sneezes and colds, go to the community pharmacist first, and follow the advice from their GP if they do get given antibiotics. They also learned not to keep extra doses, or use other people’s medicines.
- At the end of the session the whole scout group discusses what they have learned, with the leaders highlighting how all the above can prevent the need for infections, ensure they are used correctly, and protect them for the future. The risk of antibiotic resistance to health and healthcare is discussed in more detail in the Scout groups (due to age).
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
The following work streams are underway to progress this initiative:
- The programme on a plate information pack has been used by a number of Beaver, Cub, and Scout groups across Leicestershire. Feedback is being used to ensure the programme materials are useful for everyone, even those with little baseline understanding of infections and antibiotics.
- Another train the trainer session is planned for late June so Scouting groups can plan the session for the autumn and winter, lining up with the 2018 Antibiotic Awareness Week.
- Guiding leaders will be invited to the June train the trainer session so the programme can be trialled in regional Brownies and Guide groups to prove that this programme is universal and can be used across a number of youth organisations.
- There is an appetite from a number of Scouting groups from across the UK wishing to run the programme in their regions. The refined programme on a plate should allow for this to happen.
- There has also been interest from local primary schools and Ryan is currently working with a primary school to see how this programme could work in that setting.
- We are liaising with stakeholders including West Lancashire Scouts and e-Bug to widen the reach of the programme and aim for national delivery and recognition of the programme. The aim is to have this become a formal UK Scouting activity badge as it has links through to a number of other activity badges.
2017 Entries
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (Winner – Antibiotic Guardian Awards 2017)
Name: Riva Eardley
Provide a brief overview of your project: In the autumn of 2016, the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust teamed up with Public Health professionals from the City of Wolverhampton Council and Wolverhampton CCG to raise awareness of antibiotics resistance in Wolverhampton. One aspect of the programme focussed on improving awareness of and education about antibiotics resistance amongst children and young people, in line with the expected theme for the PHE campaign in November. Primary schools were offered the opportunity for key stage 2 primary school pupils to receive a special presentation from their designated school nurse. The presentation was developed by a microbiologist working at New Cross Hospital in collaboration with public health colleagues.
The session focused on four major themes:
- What antibiotic resistant bacteria is and why it is an important public health issue
• The differences between bacteria and viruses and why antibiotics do not work on viruses
• The importance of taking antibiotics as directed by doctors and nurses
• The importance of hand washing for the prevention of infection
Following the session, all pupils were invited to enter a city-wide poster competition. The five posters judged to be the best were reproduced and enlarged and displayed at various locations around New Cross Hospital and the local children’s centre for a six week period. At the same time, the organisers arranged for a large display of the winning posters to be placed outside the learning room at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. At a special launch day of the poster campaign, the winning children, their parents and teachers as well as guests from the Trust and Council were invited to view the poster display and celebrate their achievement. The children were congratulated by the Director of Public Health, the local Councillor for Public Health and the Lead Infection Prevention Nurse who were delighted to see the children passing on messages about hand hygiene, the difference between bacterial and viral infections and the importance of taking antibiotics correctly. The location of the Art Gallery display was ideally placed so that individuals from schools and other educational establishments using the learning room would have to pass it to get to the learning centre. The initiative was celebrated in a press release, highlighted on social media and shared by the Lead Pharmacist at PHE.
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with:
- The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
• The City of Wolverhampton Council
• Wolverhampton City CCG
• Wolverhampton Art Gallery
• Local Primary Schools
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? Antibiotic stewardship was successfully highlighted to all school nurses in the training they received to be able to deliver the workshops in primary schools. It was highlighted to all teachers and pupils during the workshops. The quality of posters received was a testament to the fact that children had taken on board messages and translated them in to posters. This project operated on the assumption that educating young people about the importance of hand hygiene and appropriate use of antibiotics would contribute to achieving aims of the local antibiotic stewardship group around decreasing the spread of infections and reducing patient demand for antibiotics for simple self-limiting illnesses. The intention was to target children with an interactive educational campaign that would, as a by-product, raise awareness amongst parents and teachers.
At every stage of the project children, parents and teachers were directed to the Antibiotic Guardian website. For example information about the project was placed in the local newsletter for teachers along with links on how to become an antibiotic guardian and raise awareness using E-bug. The children’s homework sheets also contained information about becoming an antibiotic guardian. Local publicity of the project raised awareness of stewardship and particularly the role of health educators in raising awareness amongst children and young people. The addition of the poster competition element meant that children enthusiastically reproduced the key messages in a creative way. At the launch event the children went on to discuss what they had learnt and how they would help to spread awareness to others. The children that participated in the competition were invited to apply for their Junior Antibiotic Guardian Badges.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
- In the Autumn term of the 2016/17academic year, key stage 2 primary school children in Wolverhampton were taught about- the need to reduce inappropriate antimicrobial demand
– the importance of washing and drying hands to prevent infections and stop them from spreading, including when and how hands should be washed.This preceded the publication of NICE guidance on Antimicrobial stewardship (NG663) in January 2017. The talk was developed and delivered in a way to help children understand the importance of protecting antibiotics; a message they can take forward throughout their lives. The posters received indicate that children understand that antibiotics are a finite resource for treating bacterial infections and should not be used for viruses. They also understood that hand washing was the most effective way to prevent the spread of infections and avoid getting ill in the first place. Moreover on attending presentation assemblies, it was clear that children had listened and remembered the key messages when questioned.2. Children were encouraged to share their learning with parents and given the opportunity to design a poster at home. The idea was to encourage families to discuss the issue and the poster was a vehicle for doing so. Children were given a hand out to take home that reinforced their learning and directed them to the Antibiotic Guardian website. The five winners were presented with prizes during assemblies which were attended by their school nurse and representatives from the Trust and City Council. During these assemblies, most of which were also attended by groups of parents, the main messages of the campaign were again reinforced.3. The five winning posters were reproduced for display in numerous locations throughout the city. Posters designed by children have attracted a lot of attention in previous campaigns (e.g. road safety) and it was believed that this would help promote the protection of antibiotics in a more effective way than a traditional poster. At the poster launch event members of the public stopped to view the display and ask questions. There was also a press release which was highlighted on the trust website and social media sites: http://www.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk/media/latest-news/wolverhampton-art-gallery-showcases-winning-posters/
Key outcomes of project?:
- Approximately 700 children (and their teachers) received a presentation on antibiotics from their school nurse and now have greater awareness of the issue.
• Five poster designs that were used for a poster campaign around the city including the local hospital, children’s centre and art gallery.
• Highlighted on social media.
• People came together across different organisations (hospital, schools, primary care and local community) to ensure the project was delivered.
• Funding was identified to print more posters to be displayed in other key locations including GP surgeries, libraries, all schools, leisure centres, children’s centres and community pharmacies.
How is the project to be developed in the future?: The project group are currently considering options for future delivery and have secured a presentation slot on the city’s head teachers meeting in July. At this meeting the intention is to discuss different options for future delivery including offering training for teachers to deliver E-Bug and support from school nurses for more sessions. The winning posters will continue to be used as part of the AMR Stewardship programme in Wolverhampton and will be deployed to other key locations as mentioned under key outcomes.
West Lancashire Scouts (Highly commended – Antibiotic Guardian Awards 2017)
Name: Shelagh Snape nominating Steve Morton and Clare Williams
Provide a brief overview of your project? Max 400 words: I am nominating Steve Morton, Clare Williams and West Lancashire Scouts for the Children and Family Antibiotic Guardian Award. Steve works for PHE as a Health and Wellbeing Manager in NW PHE Centre and is also County Commissioner in the West Lancashire Scouts (WLS) organisation. Clare Williams is a Leader Training Manager WLS and also a Nurse Manager for Occupational Health at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.
As part of EAAD and WAAW in November 2016 Steve agreed to approach WLS Management Team with a proposal to undertake activities for Scouts to become Antibiotic Guardians (this work fits soundly within the Scout Community Impact element of their training framework). He has spearheaded this project within WLS, securing funding to provide badges and handwashing training kits for groups to complete the activities to achieve their badges. Groups are able to download the activity packs from the WLS Website, linked from their twitter and Facebook accounts, where they are also required to upload and share their successes. The activity packs are linked to the e-Bug web pages for KS1&2 – Beavers and Cubs, and KS3&4 for Scouts and Explorers. Young People are encouraged to showcase their work on the Makewav.es site to gain a digital badge.
Training in the use of the handwashing kits and activities is being organised for WLS Leaders. Lancashire County Council’s Infection Prevention and Control Nurses from the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement team will provide a ‘Train the Trainer’ session for WLS Leaders to roll out to others in the organisation. Clinical and pharmacy professionals working within WLS are available to the groups for further advice.
‘Call to action: Complete the badge and choose one simple pledge about how you’ll make better use of antibiotics and help save these vital medicines from becoming obsolete. Young people and adults alike are encouraged to make a promise and become antibiotic guardians. More information on Antibiotic Guardians can be found at https://antibioticguardian.com
This provides an excellent opportunity where members of the county can have a major impact on global health by acting locally as part of our Community Impact agenda, it is what we do! It is what we have always done, look after others!’ (WLS Antibiotic Guardian Scheme).
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: Steve and Clare have worked with key local organisations to seek support for this work. This includes PHE, Lancashire County Council, e-Bug and Antibiotic Guardian.
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? Max 400 words: The project went live on the WLS Twitter and Facebook pages on 23/02/2017. The Twitter page has had 2065 views in the first 3 weeks and 50 badge information sheets/resource links downloaded, 4 junior e-Bug packs and 2 senior e-Bug packs have also been downloaded with others having been downloaded direct from the e-Bug site. Although it is early days since the project became live, Steve reports a high level of interest including from other scouting regions within the UK, as far afield as Sussex, Bristol and Aberdeen. The project is being tweeted by WLS to all its 2776 followers, and shared with over 20,000 on Facebook, which include many other similar organisations.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics? Max 400 words: 1. Scouts are asked to complete one of several suggested activities e.g. Learn about different bugs from the e-Bug Pack
2. In order for the scouts to earn their badge they are required to showcase their knowledge of Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance and upload the evidence to the WLS Facebook page or Makewav.es site entitled ‘I am a junior Antibiotic Guardian’ e.g. poster, presentation or video.
3. Scouts are also asked to make one of the following promises or pledges:
A. I will sing the ABC song when washing my hands with soap and water. Washing hands properly (at least 30 seconds), especially before eating, is the single best way to prevent the spread of bad germs and keep you and your family healthy
B. If I am prescribed antibiotics, I will ensure they are taken exactly as prescribed and never share them with others
C. I will wash my hands with soap and water after touching or handling my pets
D. I will tell my parents/carers and teachers about Antibiotic Guardian and ask them to choose a promise too
Key outcomes of project?: Potential uptake of the Antibiotic Guardian Scheme by 13,600 WLS members including 3,500 adult volunteers = increased Antibiotic Guardians in Lancashire.
Increased Antibiotic/Antibiotic Resistance awareness among scouts, young people, adults and their families.
How is the project to be developed in the future?: • Project will continue to be available with resources to future Scout co-hort.
• Potential roll out to other Scouting areas in the UK. Other Scout counties in the North West of England have expressed an interest in rolling out the scheme with a total membership of over 55,000
• Potential for other similar organisations to adopt and adapt project in their organisations.
NHS Leeds North Clinical Commissioning Group
Provide a brief overview of your project? Max 400 words: To raise awareness of AMR in children and young people.
The Leeds CCGs partnered up with Space2, who are a vibrant arts and community charity, who working in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Leeds. They use various art forms to work with young people to help them make important changes around their health.
The aim of the project was to work with children and young people to develop their own media format to promote and raise awareness of how antimicrobials are used for that specific target audience.
We worked with a school that is in one of the most deprived areas of Leeds and also in an area where GP practices are amongst the highest prescribers of antibiotic.
In previous years we have targeted the adult population but felt that it was important to engage with the younger population, to improve education around antibiotic use from an early age.
The project involved:-
• Focus group sessions to understand young people’s view on antibiotics, and ideas of what sort of film /animation would work targeting years 7, 8, and 9.
• Workshops with school to come up with the story idea working with musicians and film makers.
• Creation of an animation and resources that can be used across the city.
A copy of the short video and flyer are sent in a separate email.
Once the video was produced a special assembly was arranged where members of the Leeds antimicrobial group were invited to attend and the video was shown to the rest of the school.
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: Space2
David Young Academy, Seacroft.
Musician Boff Whalley of Chumbawamba
Film maker Jelena Zindovic
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? Max 400 words: This project resulted in a produced a short video that has been produced by the students for the students and this has been shown to the school which has over 1000 pupils. The video gives as advice that antibiotics are not for coughs and colds and gives advice about what to do, in an easy and fun format with a catchy tune.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics? Max 400 words: • The focus groups to talk about the children’s views and thoughts were around antibiotics
• The production of the video
• The showing of the video at the school.
Key outcomes of project?: The production of the video which is aimed at children and pitches the messages for that specific audience.
How is the project to be developed in the future?: The intention is for this video to be shared with schools across Leeds, shown in GP practices as part of the Life Channel and also to be shared as a resource with other areas.
Also use this format to deliver other messages around antibiotics such as resistance, hand washing etc.
Newent Community School and Sixth Form
Name: Di Harrill
Provide a brief overview of your project? Newent Community School worked with E Bug and the Forest of Dean District council to run a peer education programme. The five workshops – Microbe Mania – Sneeze Machine – How clean in your Kitchen – Anti-biotic Awareness and hand Washing were demonstrated to all the year 8 students. The workshops were practical and fun. 20 year 8 students were selected to be peer educators.
These students were each given a T shirt and then had the opportunity to practice their workshop with the support from E Bug and environmental health team.
Second day- year 8 Peer educators taught the year 7’s, they moved around each workshop learning about all the different elements. After the year 7 sessions, the year 8 peer educators did the workshops with the local primary school. This is the fourth year we have run this 2 day event.
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: E Bug
Forrest of Dean District council – environmental health team
Newent Students also helped to trial the new E Bug website and evaluate it
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category?: Several hundred students have now gone through this E Bug peer education programme. The workshops are interactive and fun, and the peer educators do an amazing job of passing on the information to the students. Students are encouraged to share the information with their families.
The messages are reinforced when primary school students attend Newent, they can be peer educators.
The local paper had an article and there are photographs of the event in our school prospectus and on our website.
The message is further followed up in PSHE and science.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?: Microbe Mania – this workshop was very practical, the students talked about the different types and looked at images of them. They also talked about how they can be treated and transmitted. Students then made a microbe out of modelling clay and took it home in a petri dish
Understanding Antibiotics – this involved the use of balloons – again a practical demonstration that help the students understand the difference s between bacteria and a virus. The visual nature of the demonstrated helped them to retain the knowledge. They also learnt about antibiotics – why we shouldn’t over use them, and why if we prescribed them we should make sure we take the full dose.
Hand Washing – this again was a visual and practical activity – which showed them under ultraviolet light – the importance of thorough hand washing and the use of soap to kill bacteria. They also learnt about when it is important to wash your hands.
Key outcomes of project?: Several hundred students have learnt, in a visual, practical fun way many of the issues around antibiotics and health. The peer educators also had the added impact of practicing presentations skills – speaking to an audience – things that helped them to develop confidence. We also found that the students appeared to be more attentive when being taught by a peer.
What and why illnesses become resistant to antibiotics.
They learnt about thorough hand washing – catching a sneeze – and food hygiene.
How is the project to be developed in the future?: This project has now been run for four years. It is a two day event – which has a big impact on the whole school. The main hall is left set up for students to walk around and read the large poster.
It also means that students get the opportunity to revisit the learning points – year 5, 6, 7 and 8.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Name: Kate Stock
Provide a brief overview of your project? Our project was focused on European Antibiotic Awareness day 2016, with the aim of promoting infection control and antibiotic awareness with children and their family members. We had a brightly coloured ‘pop up’ stall in the atrium of the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow and this featured a variety of promotional material and information on how to become an antibiotic guardian.
Our main focus was on the children themselves and we consulted with a primary school teacher on how best to create a display that was both inviting for children and interactive, to create learning through fun. We also accessed e-bug junior to help us design our activities.
As EAAD was at the start of the winter season we decided to teach children about the importance of infection control with coughs and sneezes. We created our own ‘snot gun’ which the children could spray against an easel to demonstrate how far harmful microbes travel, we told them that other people can breathe in these microbes causing them to get ill, so it is important that they should cover their mouths. We also had a hand washing glow box so we could ask them to wash their hands after ‘sneezing’ to see if they had washed all of the germs away and we were then able to teach them how to wash their hands properly and explain the importance of good hand hygiene. Parents and carers were also encouraged to use the hand washing glow box. To emphasise hand hygiene we had a set of huge hulk hands holding a cuddly e.coli, the children were able to try these on and see that ‘dirty hands carry bugs’. Whilst the children were undertaking the activities, we were also able to engage with their parents to enforce the message that antibiotics do not work against viruses and the importance of prudent use of antibiotics.
Both children and parents were encouraged to become antibiotic guardians and signposted to the e-bug website to try other fun activities. Young children were given the EAAD colouring picture and pencils to take away and we gave older children and adults antibiotic guardian leaflets and promotional pens with which to complete them.
Please list any supporting partners or organisations worked with: Greater Glasgow and Clyde Infection Control Team
Greater Glasgow and Clyde Hand Hygiene Co-ordinator
Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group Public Partners
Greater Glasgow and Clyde Infectious Disease and Microbiology Teams
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? Specific outcomes from EAAD promotion were not measured, however the main focus from the day was to raise awareness of antimicrobial stewardship within families as the children we are treating now are the ones that will face the adverse outcomes of antibiotic resistance as adults. As the stand was in the main atrium of the children’s hospital it also attracted attention from hospital staff, which we were able to use to raise the profile of the Antimicrobial Management Team.
Following this, we were able to establish invaluable links with clinicians and engage with them further to develop strategies to improve antibiotic prescribing and management of patients with infections. In particular:
– An invitation to present to a non-medical prescriber study day about antimicrobial stewardship.
– Engagement with Emergency Department staff to look at front line empiric prescribing.
– Establishing a carbapenem drug use evaluation project in paediatric intensive care.
– Interest for further EAAD activities within the childrens hospital.
Together with positive feedback from parents, children and healthcare staff on the day, this achieved our objective for the day with respect to promoting antimicrobial stewardship and encouraging infection control. It far surpassed our expectations with regard to clinician engagement and the further work that has ensued. All of this can only have a positive impact on safeguarding antibiotics for the future of our children.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?
1) Encouragement to sign up to become an antibiotic guardian
2) Use of ‘Guide to treat your infection’ endorsed Public Health England, NHS Scotland and other bodies. Advising patients/parents that common ailments are self limiting and when they should consult their GP.
3) Teaching children (and parents!) the importance that good hand hygiene prevents the spread of infection. Good infection control measures reduce antibiotic use.
Key outcomes of project?: Our main desired outcome was to engage families and teach the importance of infection control through fun and spread the word regarding antibiotic resistance.
Other key outcomes were that created invaluable links with other members of the healthcare team and highlighted the importance of antimicrobial stewardship being the responsibility of everyone. We raised the profile of the local AMT, even in simple terms of being able to put names to faces and establish friendly links for people to ask questions. Development of further improvement projects as a result of our EAAD promotion which embeds antimicrobial stewardship into local and national practice.
How is the project to be developed in the future?: We hope to expand on our success, by running further promotional days within the children’s hospital with different fun and interactive activities with the desired aim of recruiting more antibiotic guardians. We have also reported back our success to the Association of Scottish Antimicrobial Pharmacists and have put forward an agenda to educate other children and families within other health boards. Our ultimate goal would be to engage with local councils to see if we could incorporate the importance of antimicrobial stewardship into schools
