Antimicrobial Stewardship: How much do the nurses realize their role?

Abstract

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship is a team work and Nurses can especially play an essential role in optimizing diagnostic tests or diagnostic stewardship and patient education. However, there is little focus on antimicrobial stewardship training amongst healthcare professionals. Even more neglected is the concept of the role of nursing and their training on antimicrobial stewardship. This study was conducted in a tertiary care centre of Aligarh City of India to 1) evaluate the nurses’ knowledge about antibiotic resistance and antimicrobial stewardship 2) To assess the willingness of nurses to participate in Antibiotic stewardship Programs. Methods: A multi-hospital exploratory, collective, mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative) was used to assess the knowledge and attitude on antimicrobial stewardship amongst the nursing officers. Three-fifty (350) nurses from three hospitals of Aligarh, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital (JNMCH), Mohanlal Gautam Rajkiya Mahila Chikitsalaya (MGRMC) and Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital were interviewed. Their awareness, knowledge and willingness to participate in hospital antimicrobial stewardship program were assessed using a predesigned questionnaire. Results: We observed most of the nurses had a poor knowledge (40.2%) while 29.8% had average and 30.0% had good knowledge. However, three-fourth (74.3%) of the participants agreed to participate in AMSP teaching learning and implementation, while 25.7% did not. Conclusion: Tailored interventions to improve awareness and create a favourable attitude among nurses towards the prevention of antibiotic resistance.

International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Supplementary Issue 02: 2023 Page: S168-S181