Table 1

Facility and participant characteristics

Facility characteristics (n=12)
Location (Australian jurisdiction, number of homes)Queensland—8, Victoria—4
Metropolitan—7, Regional/Rural—5
Size (number of beds)
Breakdown by facility size		Median- 76 beds

  • Up to 40 beds—1 (40 beds)

  • 41–100 beds—6 (range 51–90 beds)

  • 101–150 beds—2 (range 105–107 beds)

  • >150 beds—3 (range 176–183 beds)

Type

  • Not for profit (religious, charitable or community)—10 (2 dementia-specific homes)

  • For profit—2

Participant characteristics
Nurse champions (n=12, at baseline)*Role
58% Infection Prevention and Control Lead†
42% Clinical manager/Director of Nursing/Clinical care coordinator
Experience and training
Number of years working in residential aged care: 5–32 (median 12)
67% Formal training in antimicrobial stewardship
Previous experience in receiving or delivering antimicrobial stewardship education or training to aged care clinicians:

  • 50% informal feedback and education to staff

  • 50% formal education session for staff

  • 25% modules on eLearning platforms

Pharmacist champions (n=4)Experience as quality use of medicines pharmacist‡- 15–40 years (median 31)
Experience in delivering activities:

  • 100% Member of Medication Advisory Committee in facility

  • 100% Develop policy and procedure

  • 100% Education

  • 100% Auditing

  • *At follow-up, five new champions were interviewed due to staffing changes.

  • † Goverment mandate introduced in late 2020 for a nurse who has completed specialist IPC training to lead IPC at the RACH

  • ‡ Quality Use of Medicines pharmacists are funded by the Australian governemment to provide contracted services to RACHs including education, training, support in developing policies and procedures and participate in governance activities.