Online course

Developed in collaboration with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC), this module deals with antimicrobials prescribing in a hospital setting.

In this case, you are an intern working on a medical inpatient unit at a metropolitan hospital. You are rostered for after-hours ward coverage of medical patients. You are called to see a patient by a nurse on the cardiology ward on the evening of his third hospital day because he is confused and has a temperature of 38.9°C.

Mr Wilson is an independent 72-year-old man who was admitted to hospital for an exacerbation of chronic heart failure (CHF) on a background of rate-controlled atrial fibrillation and a previous myocardial infarction. For three days prior to admission, he has noticed decreased exercise tolerance and had been waking up at night with shortness of breath.