The antimicrobial stewardship shanty - A lateral out-of-the-box tool for antimicrobial resistance awareness

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) constitutes a silent pandemic with escalating morbidity and mortality worldwide. Raising awareness across all societal strata requires innovative, memorable, and scientifically accurate educational tools.

To describe the development and preliminary dissemination of "The AMS Shanty" - a musical educational tool in the traditional sea shanty format - designed to convey core antimicrobial stewardship (AMSP) principles to healthcare trainees and lay audiences.

The shanty comprises six verses and a repeating chorus, covering: pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) (Verse 1); source control and fever as a non-specific sign (Verse 2); minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and breakpoints (Chorus); avoidance of empirical "shotgun" therapy (Verse 3); proper specimen collection (aspirates, clean catch urine, blood cultures) (Verse 4); infection prevention and control (CAUTI, CLABSI, VAP, SSI) (Verse 5); and diagnostic stewardship (distinguishing colonizers from true pathogens) (Verse 6). The primary target audience is healthcare trainees (medical students, nursing students, junior doctors); the secondary audience includes laypersons and patients.

A YouTube video recording (released in January 2026) has garnered approximately 1000 views as of May 2026, and has been shared across several medical colleges in India. Informal feedback from 150 junior doctors indicated that the chorus was the most memorable element; 120 of 150 recalled at least three AMS principles after a single viewing.

The AMS Shanty is presented as a descriptive report of a creative, low-cost, scalable educational innovation. Formal validation of its effectiveness on knowledge retention and behavioural change is a planned future direction.