The front line is your desk
Between 80–90% of antibiotics are prescribed in primary care. Every consultation is a stewardship decision. Yet primary care clinicians often face these decisions under time pressure, with evolving guidelines, patient expectations and uncertainty about when an infection is bacterial, viral or self-limiting.
This 6-day crash course, organized by WHO/Europe, is designed to give primary care clinicians the practical tools, clinical reasoning and expert coaching to make confident antibiotic prescribing decisions, reduce unnecessary antibiotic use and lead antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in their daily practice without compromising patient care.
What you will gain
The course brings together expert-led plenary sessions, real-world clinical scenarios and practical tools that clinicians can apply the next day in their consultations. It focuses on prescribing behaviour, diagnostic stewardship and patient communication – 3 areas where small shifts in practice make a measurable difference for both patients and resistance trends.
Programme overview
Tuesday 26 May 2026 – The human face of AMR [antimicrobial resistance]: core AMS principles every primary care clinician must own. This includes core AMS concepts, the role of primary care in AMR control, how stewardship fits into daily workflow and antimicrobial use monitoring, audit and feedback in primary health care.
Wednesday 27 May 2026 – From symptoms to solutions: confident antibiotic decisions for the most common infections in adults, including the elderly. This includes evidence-based indications, first-line and second-line choices, duration of therapy, clinical decision pathways, red flags versus self-limiting illness, when not to prescribe and symptomatic management, with a focus on respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, skin and soft tissue infections and sinusitis.
Friday 29 May 2026 – Beyond the usual suspects: smarter antimicrobial stewardship for STIs [sexually transmitted infections], TB and HIV in primary care. This includes clinical decision pathways, targeted treatment principles, patient-centred management and prevention and how to link primary care with surveillance.
Tuesday 2 June 2026 – Confident antibiotic decisions for the most common infections in children. This includes age-appropriate prescribing for paediatric outpatients, including respiratory tract infections, otitis media, pharyngitis and urinary tract infections.; recognizing atypical presentations in infants; and avoiding unnecessary antibiotics for viral illness.
Wednesday 3 June 2026 – Safe prescribing and vaccination in pregnancy and breastfeeding. This includes safe versus contraindicated antibiotics in pregnancy and lactation, managing common maternal infections and the role of vaccination (influenza, pneumococcal, pertussis) as a stewardship tool to reduce antibiotic demand.
Friday 5 June 2026 – From swabs to scripts: smarter testing and better patient conversations. This includes diagnostic stewardship (i.e. when to test, when not to test, the use of C-reactive protein and Strep A testing, avoiding over-diagnosis), combined with communication skills for managing patient expectations, explaining prescribing decisions, safety netting and delayed prescribing.
All sessions are held online from 16:00–18:00 CEST.
Who should attend
The course is primarily designed for clinically active physicians working in primary care across the WHO European Region. It is also open to health-care professionals working in primary care settings globally. Participants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with relevant WHO resources in advance.
Faculty
Participants will learn from leading AMS and AMR experts from WHO collaborating centres, national public health agencies and top hospitals across Europe and beyond. The faculty includes clinicians and researchers who are actively shaping global stewardship policy and translating it into practice, alongside a patient advocate who brings the lived experience of sepsis and AMR into the conversation.
Format and commitment
The programme includes 6 online sessions of 2 hours each, held from 26 May–5 June 2026, 16:00–18:00 CEST. Sessions include expert presentations, case-based discussion and a Question & Answer period. The course is delivered in English.
Register
Spaces are limited.
For questions, please contact the course coordinators at WHO/Europe.