Question

Nursing home antimicrobial stewardship impact on nursing practice?

Answer 1

Antimicrobial stewardship is the effective and cautious use of antibiotics inorder to

• reduce adverse drug interaction
• decrease antibiotic resistance
• lower health costs
• increase infection cure rates

The main purpose of this programme is to use antibiotics only when necessary and to select appropriate antimicrobials at the right dose, route, frequency and duration.

Nursing home antimicrobial stewardship provides effective guide to

1. optimize the use of antibiotics
2. as a role of health educators they educate the importance of hand hygiene and there by reducing infections and antimicrobials.
3. they involve in routine practice by avoding unnecessary investigations. Example is sending urine culture with out specific symptoms of Urinary Tract Infection.
4. Encouraging the nurses to participate in clinical decision making for an antibiotc by monitoring lab reports for the organism sensitivity.
5. Helps to maintain professional practice of communications between patients and familes.