3. Results
Sixty (20%) out of 297 eligible medical students answered all or part of the survey (34 in 5th year and 26 in 6th year).
3.1. Antibiotic prescribing
3.1.1. Areas of confidence in prescribing
Students were more confident in making an accurate diagnosis of infection/sepsis and interpreting microbiological results (Fig. 1). Students were less confident in choosing the correct dose and interval of antibiotics and planning the duration of treatment.
3.1.2. Training in antibiotic prescribing
Forty-six out of 58 students (79%) stated that they would like more training on antibiotic selection.
3.1.3. Antibiotic use
Thirty-five out of 51 (69%) students gave a correct answer regarding the prevalence of inappropriate or unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions (21–60%). Thirty-seven out of 51 (73%) did not know that more than 80% of all antibiotics are prescribed in outpatient settings, in France.
3.1.4. Ethics of inappropriate prescribing
Fifty-five out of 58 students (95%) felt prescribing inappropriate or unnecessary antibiotics to be professionally unethical.
3.1.5. Personal role as a physician
Thirty-one out of 49 students (63%) felt that the antibiotics they would prescribe would contribute to antibiotic resistance. Forty-seven out of 49 students (96%) believed that antibiotic resistance would become a greater clinical problem during their career.
3.1.6. Awareness and use of guidelines
Thirty-seven out of 58 students (64%) were aware that their hospital had antibiotic guidelines, and 36 out of 58 students (62%) had personally used them when considering an appropriate antibiotic therapy for a patient. Only 16 out of 58 (28%) students had been given a copy of the guidelines, or shown how to access them.
3.2. Knowledge that may shape perceptions of antimicrobial resistance
3.2.1. Current status of antimicrobial resistance
Fifty-one out of 54 students (94%) felt that antibiotic resistance was a national problem. Thirty-seven out of 54 students (69%) felt that antibiotic resistance was a problem in their hospital.
3.2.2. Trends in resistance over time
Twelve out of 54 students (22%) knew that the proportion of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia caused by MRSA had decreased in the past decade in France. Thirty-nine out of 54 students (72%) felt that vancomycin resistant S. aureus were responsible for over 1% of all S. aureus blood stream infections in France. Thirty-nine out of 54 students (72%) believed that over 1% of bacterial infections in Europe (except for tuberculosis) was resistant to all known antibiotics.