Some personal thoughts :

1. Know well important bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa  and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
2. Know your antibiotics and again, know a lot about the few that you will commonly use. Aminoglycoside and vancomycin dosing and administration require particular focus – Therapeutic Guidelines: Antibiotic , Edition 15 (Aust) is the central reference to use.
3. Use microbiological testing to the best advantage. Directing therapy against a proven cause is  always preferred.
4. Understand how antimicrobial susceptibility is measured and the limitations of lab testing- more on this soon!  Understand that the ‘in vivo‘ susceptibility test does not always get it right!
5. Access  local patterns of  bacterial resistance (Cumulative Antibiograms) – along with TG: Antibiotic this helps to guide empirical therapy for sepsis. Be skeptical about foreign guidelines and potential conflicts of interest in those who formulate them.
6. Make antibiotic therapy A I M E D to avoid a Tragedy of the Commons, from neglect of this precious resource.
7. Learn more about Antibiotic stewardship. This free Dundee University online course is a good place to start!

Any other important learning objectives to get the best our of antimicrobials? Share them here