Table 2.

Expected general practitioner competencies for rational use of antibiotics.^a

Domain	Expected competencies
Cognition	Selecting and prescribing antibiotic therapy according to national/local practice guidelines Using local microbial-/antimicrobial-susceptibility patterns when conducting empiric treatments Using antimicrobial agents for prophylaxis appropriately Constructing the prescription for an antimicrobial with its pharmacokinetics and knowing how this affects the choice of dosage regimen
Skills	Choosing and calculating the dose, route, and interval of administration Monitoring the therapeutic drug and adjusting doses to ensure adequate drug levels Using the antibiotics toolkit
Attitude	Not initiating antibiotic treatment in the absence of bacterial infection Avoiding the unnecessary use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials Using only single doses of antimicrobials for surgical and other procedures for which prophylaxis has been shown to be effective unless published national recommendations suggest otherwise

^aThe table content was developed using various sources [36-38].