OPAT: Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (FutureLearn)

OPAT: Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (FutureLearn)

Learn how patients with a serious infection can be managed in outpatient settings with the help of an OPAT service. Discover the function, role and limitations of an OPAT service. OPAT is a clinical service which enables patients with serious infection to be managed in an outpatient setting. The service aims to facilitate admission avoidance or early hospital discharge. On this course, you will be introduced to the concept of OPAT. You’ll start by looking at the roles and responsibilities within the multi-disciplinary OPAT team.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Next, you’ll examine the importance of patient selection and antimicrobial choice, followed by device selection and monitoring.
By the end of the course, you’ll know how to develop an OPAT service in your own setting.

What topics will you cover?
The course will cover:

  • The function, role and limitations of OPAT in modern health care
  • The roles and responsibilities within the multi-disciplinary OPAT team
  • The importance of patient selection, antimicrobial choice and device selection and monitoring in achieving optimal outcome
  • How OPAT relates to the wider antimicrobial stewardship agenda and health care governance

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Identify the function, role and limitations of OPAT in modern health care
  • Compare the different roles and responsibilities within the multi-disciplinary OPAT team and reflect on how other health care providers may contribute to the service
  • Explain how patient selection, antimicrobial choice and device selection and monitoring are crucial to achieving optimal outcome
  • Explore how OPAT relates to the wider antimicrobial stewardship agenda and health care governance
  • Apply antimicrobial stewardship principles to clinical OPAT practice
Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Challenges in Antibiotic Resistance: Gram Negative Bacteria (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy - BSAC

Challenges in Antibiotic Resistance: Gram Negative Bacteria (FutureLearn)

This course by BSAC is for healthcare professionals managing infections. You will learn about Gram Negative Bacteria. Identify, diagnose and treat gram negative bacterial infections. Gram negative bacteria (GNB) are a group of bacteria that can cause infection and toxic reaction in patients, yet are difficult to differentiate and treat with antibiotics due to their structure.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
The Open University

Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World (FutureLearn)

Use literary and archaeological evidence to see how ancient Greeks and Romans approached health, well-being and societal issues. What did being healthy in ancient Rome or Greece look like? How can we tell what well-being meant in ancient times? This online course will help you investigate these questions, using both literary and archaeological evidence, to uncover details of real life in ancient societies.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Infant Nutrition: from Breastfeeding to Baby's First Solids (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Deakin University

Infant Nutrition: from Breastfeeding to Baby's First Solids (FutureLearn)

Learn what good infant nutrition looks like, how and what to feed a baby, and how to start weaning. Explore the principles of good nutrition in the first 12 months of a baby’s life. In this insightful course led by nutritional experts from Deakin University, you’ll trace the milestones in a baby’s first year of life to learn about the principles of good infant nutrition and how you can apply them. You’ll explore the nutritional requirements of young children, as well as why healthy food for babies is so essential.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Causes of Human Disease: Understanding Causes of Disease (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Leeds

Causes of Human Disease: Understanding Causes of Disease (FutureLearn)

Learn the epidemiological methods used to understand the causes of diseases and how social factors influence their development. What causes human disease? Why do some people get a disease but others don’t? Through this course, you’ll learn how epidemiologists are helping to find answers to these complex questions and how the health of a population is measured and analysed.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Optimización del uso de antimicrobianos: Gestión de la resistencia a los antimicrobianos (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Dundee,British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy - BSAC

Optimización del uso de antimicrobianos: Gestión de la resistencia a los antimicrobianos (FutureLearn)

Entender la resistencia a los antibióticos, y cómo la administración antimicrobiana puede ralentizar o reducirla, con este curso. Diseñado para los profesionales sanitarios, este curso de seis semanas te informará sobre —y te capacitará para proporcionar— un uso seguro y de alta calidad de los antibióticos.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Birmingham

Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver (FutureLearn)

Learn about how your liver works, ways to look after it and how liver damage is caused, studied and treated around the world. We are currently experiencing an international explosion of liver disease that continues to have enormous impact upon healthcare systems and global health. In the UK we have seen a 20% increase in deaths related to liver disease since 2000 and this pattern reflects the global situation.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Digital Health for Cancer Management: Smart Health Technologies in Complex Diseases (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Taipei Medical University

Digital Health for Cancer Management: Smart Health Technologies in Complex Diseases (FutureLearn)

Learn how new digital health technologies are transforming cancer management with this course for healthcare professionals. Recent advances in cancer treatment and management have lead to people with cancer living longer than ever before, now healthcare must begin to consider how to help people with cancer live healthily. On this course you will explore and discuss how new digital health technologies, like wearables, social media and home sensors, are starting to transform the management of cancer.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Antimicrobial Stewardship: Managing Antibiotic Resistance (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Dundee,British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy - BSAC

Antimicrobial Stewardship: Managing Antibiotic Resistance (FutureLearn)

Understand antibiotic resistance, and how antimicrobial stewardship can slow down or reduce it, with this free online course. Antimicrobial stewardship is a fast-growing field that aims to address this issue by managing our use of antibiotics to slow down or reduce the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance. Designed for healthcare professionals, this six-week course will inform you about - and empower you to provide - safe, high-quality antibiotic use.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Dysphagia: Swallowing Difficulties and Medicines (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Dysphagia: Swallowing Difficulties and Medicines (FutureLearn)

This course will enhance the knowledge of any person involved in the administration of medicines to patients with dysphagia. The course offers an opportunity to network with other learners and with the creators of the course through discussions, graphs and social networking features and to share knowledge with other learners and professionals.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
The Genomics Era: the Future of Genetics in Medicine (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
St George's, University of London,St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The Genomics Era: the Future of Genetics in Medicine (FutureLearn)

Get an introduction to the growing role of genomics in healthcare, for patient diagnoses, treatment and disease prevention. This free online course will provide healthcare professionals with a basic grounding in genomic medicine. It will introduce you to new genomic technologies, which are revolutionising medicine and will, in time, provide the mainstay of patient diagnosis, treatment and disease prevention.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Introduction to Health Technology Assessment (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Glasgow

Introduction to Health Technology Assessment (FutureLearn)

Learn about health technology assessment (HTA) and quality of life (QoL), and how they’re used to decide which treatments to fund. Get an introduction to health technology assessment (HTA). This online course provides a short, interactive introduction to health technology assessment (HTA), based on the University of Glasgow’s successful online distance-learning programme, the MSc in HTA.

Self Paced
3 Weeks