On Friday, December 18, more than 70 P3 and P1 students braved the cold wind and rain in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square in order to share important information about antibiotic use with the public.
The day kicked off with Amanda Meeker, a P3, participating in an early morning interview with KGW Channel 8 News. During the course of the day, the students had the opportunity to talk to 1,140 Portlanders about appropriate antibiotic use, antibiotic resistance, hand hygiene, and more.
The AWARE program (Alliance Working for Antibiotic Resistance Education) is part of the national Get Smart About Antibiotics Week initiative. The AWARE in the Square event is an annual collaboration with the Oregon Health Authority to spread the message about antibiotics and in all, the students successfully administered the AWARE program’s survey to 368 individuals throughout the day in an effort to collect data about public knowledge regarding appropriate antibiotic use.