Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Regarding Antibiotic Use and Antimicrobial Resistance Among Undergraduate Nursing Students in Swabi
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Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a major public-health challenge, and nursing students require appropriate knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use because of their future roles in medication administration, infection prevention, and patient education. Objective: To assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance among undergraduate nursing students in Swabi, Pakistan. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study included 366 undergraduate BS Nursing students recruited through convenience sampling from selected public-sector teaching hospitals and affiliated nursing colleges in District Swabi. Data were collected using a structured 56-item questionnaire covering demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude, and practice. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.0 with descriptive statistics. Results: Participants had a mean age of 23.77 ± 1.26 years; 89.6% were male and 47.3% were eighth-semester students. Poor, moderate, and good knowledge were observed in 44.8%, 18.0%, and 37.2% of participants, respectively. Attitudes were negative at 17.8%, neutral in 76.5%, and positive at 5.7%. Practice was poor at 10.4%, moderate in 84.7%, and good in 4.9%. Conclusion: Undergraduate nursing students demonstrated heterogeneous knowledge, predominantly neutral attitudes, and mainly moderate self-reported practices regarding antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance, indicating important areas for strengthening antimicrobial-stewardship education
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