Patient self-prescription and antimicrobial stewardship: Considerations for primary care.

Objective: Stewardship efforts within institutions are commonplace, but fewer programs exist in community health care settings. Existing efforts focus on improving appropriate prescribing; however, clinicians must consider the use of antibiotics without a prescription as a contributor to antibiotic resistance. The objective of this article is to report observed methods of antibiotic self-prescription within the United States.