Background Penicillin is the most common drug allergy. While up to 20% of the population may acquire the penicillin allergy label in their lifetime, more than 90% can safely receive it, leading to unnecessary use of higher order antibiotics The PEN-FAST tool is a validated clinical decision rule used to identify low-risk penicillin allergies. By teaching antibiotic stewardship and use of this tool, we can promote better patient and public health outcomes.

Methods A 1-hour teaching module on penicillin allergy and antibiotic stewardship was given as a new curriculum during a fourth-year undergraduate medical education capstone course (N=136). Survey data was collected using Qualtrics and analyses performed in Excel. Pre- and post-surveys were linked using unique codes without any identifying information.

Results Data collection included both qualitative and quantitative measures, including 5-point Likert scales and multiple-choice questions. There was a statistically significant increase (p<0.05) in student-reported comfort with recognizing anaphylaxis and using the PEN-FAST tool in clinical settings, familiarity with the PEN-FAST tool and antibiotic stewardship, and level of understanding of the process of penicillin allergy de-labeling. There was also significant improvement in performance on calculating PEN-FAST score and identifying next steps in penicillin allergy de-labeling (from 31.2% and 39.0% correct to 66.7% and 59.3% correct, respectively).

Conclusion While our sample size was small, we implemented effective teaching of both antibiotic stewardship and PEN-FAST clinical tool use. Students self-reported increased comfort and familiarity and demonstrated knowledge application on quantitative assessment. The results suggest that this teaching module successfully met its learning objectives and future work will consist of building on this content and extending dissemination.