Highlights
- •Many nurses are not familiar with antimicrobial stewardship (AS) or their role in AS.
- •Nurses are interested in more education about antimicrobial use and resistance.
- •Education efforts should focus on staff nurse awareness and AS interventions.
- •Nurse assessment of antimicrobial allergies should be explored.
Background
Registered nurses are uniquely qualified to augment antimicrobial stewardship (AS)
processes. However, the role of nursing in AS needs further development. More information
is needed regarding gaps in registered nurse knowledge, attitudes toward AS, and how
infection preventionists can help.
Methods
An online descriptive survey was deployed to a convenience sample of approximately
2,000 nurses at the bedside. The survey included 15 questions addressing: (1) overall
knowledge of AS; (2) antimicrobial delivery; (3) knowledge and attitudes regarding
antimicrobial use; (4) antimicrobial resistance; and (5) antimicrobial resources and
education.
Results
Three hundred sixteen staff nurses from 3 hospitals (15.8%) responded to the survey.
Fifty-two percent of nurses were not familiar with the term “antimicrobial stewardship,”
although 39.6% of nurses indicated that an AS program was moderately or extremely
important in their health care setting. Almost all nurses (95%) believed that they
should be involved in AS interventions.
Discussion
These findings suggest gaps in nursing knowledge rearding AS. However, nurses believed
AS programs were important and were eager to be involved.
Conclusions
This study showed that many nurses are not aware of AS, or do not understand their
role in contributing to AS endeavors. Infection preventionist education should focus
on increasing staff nurse awareness and demonstrating how nurses can make specific
AS interventions.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to American Journal of Infection ControlAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2017. Antimicrobial/antimicrobial resistance. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/. Accessed May 13, 2019.
American Nurses Association & Centers for Disease Control. 2017. Redefining the antimicrobial stewardship team: recommendations from the American Nurses Association/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workgroup on the role of the registered nurses in hospital antimicrobial stewardship practices. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/antimicrobial-use/healthcare/pdfs/ANA-CDC-whitepaper.pdf. Accessed May 13, 2019.
- Antimicrobial stewardship: a collaborative partnership between infection preventionists and healthcare epidemiologists.Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2012; 33: 328-330
Joint Commission. Antimicrobial stewardship. 2017. Available from: https://www.jointcommission.org/topics/hai_antimicrobial_stewardship.aspx. Accessed May 13, 2019.
- Combating antimicrobial resistance: the role of nursing in antimicrobial stewardship.Am J Infect Control. 2016; 44: 1454-1457
- The critical role of the staff nurse in antimicrobial stewardship: recognized but already there.Clin Infect Dis. 2016; 62: 84-89
- Keeping patients safe: antimicrobial resistance and the role of nurse executives in antimicrobial stewardship.J Nurs Adm. 2015; 45: 67-69
- Staff nurses as antimicrobial stewards: an integrative literature review.Am J Infect Control. 2017; 45: 917-922
- Integrating staff nurses in antimicrobial stewardship: opportunities and barriers.Am J Infect Control. 2018; 46: 737-742
- Antimicrobial stewardship: the role of clinical nurses and nurse educators.Nursing Educ Today. 2018; 60: 157-160
- Educating healthcare professionals in antimicrobial stewardship: can online-learning solutions help?.J Antimicrob Chemother. 2015; 70: 3175-3177
- Antimicrobial information application offers nurses quick support.Am J Infect Control. 2016; 44: 677-684
- Infection control in the intensive care unit: progress and challenges in systems and accountability.Crit Care Med. 2010; 38: 265-268
- Health care worker perspectives of their motivation to reduce health care-associated infections.Am J Infect Control. 2017; 45: 1064-1068
- Speaking up about patient safety concerns: the influence of safety management approaches and climate on nurses’ willingness to speak up.BMJ Qual Saf. 2019; 28: 39-48
- The educational preparation of undergraduate nursing students in pharmacology: a survey of lecturers’ perceptions and experiences.J Adv Nurs. 2002; 40: 7-16
- Exploring the nurses’ role in antimicrobial stewardship: a multisite qualitative study of nurses and infection preventionists.Am J Infect Control. 2018; 46: 492-497
- Hypersensitivity reactions to beta-lactam antimicrobials.Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2003; 24: 201-220
Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy.2016. Sulfonamide antimicrobial allergy. Available from: https://www.allergy.org.au/images/pcc/ASCIA_PCC_Sulfonamide_antibiotic_allergy_2019.pdf. Accessed May 13, 2019.
- The effect of nurse empowerment educational program on patient safety culture: a randomized controlled trial.BMC Med Educ. 2018; 18: 158
- Teaching health care workers to adopt a systems perspective for improved control and prevention of health care–associated infections.Am J Infect Control. 2016; 44: 1360-1364
- Comparing web-based with mail survey administration of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) clinician and group survey.Primary Health Care. 2013; 3: 132
- Quality of reporting web-based and non-web-based survey studies: what authors, reviewers, and consumers should consider.PLoS One. 2018; 13e0194239
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 23, 2019
Footnotes
Funding/support: This work was supported by internal funding from Brigham Young University College of Nursing.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
