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Nurses' knowledge and implementation of antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention strategies in acute paediatric settings
BACKGROUND: Nurses are the first point of contact for patients and are responsible for monitoring and reporting signs of infection. The COVID-19 pandemic cemented nurses' leadership role in infection prevention. Despite this, nurses' contribution to antimicrobial stewardship initiatives re...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Healthcare Infection Society.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10164287/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37160230 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2023.05.001 |
Sumario: | BACKGROUND: Nurses are the first point of contact for patients and are responsible for monitoring and reporting signs of infection. The COVID-19 pandemic cemented nurses' leadership role in infection prevention. Despite this, nurses' contribution to antimicrobial stewardship initiatives remains under-recognized. AIM: To determine how paediatric nurses understood their role and contribution to antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control practices in three different acute paediatric wards. METHODS: Forty-three nurses were recruited from an adolescent ward, an oncology ward, and a surgical ward in a metropolitan tertiary children's hospital for a qualitative exploratory descriptive study. FINDINGS: Thematic and content analysis derived three themes from the data: understanding of preventable infections; embracing evidence-based guidelines to protect the patient; and roles in preventing and controlling infections and antimicrobial stewardship. Associated subthemes were: desensitized to COVID-19; understanding infection prevention and control precautions; correct use of hospital policy and guidelines; restrictions associated with the use of electronic medical records; understanding of sepsis management and the importance of timely microbiological testing; ambivalence on antimicrobial stewardship roles; and high priority placed on consumer education. CONCLUSION: Nurses' understanding of their role focused on practices such as performing hand hygiene, standard precautions, and reporting the use of high-risk antimicrobials. A lack of understanding of paediatric COVID-19 transmission and presentations was also reported. Education on best practice in infection prevention and AMS was recognized as crucial for both nurses and parents. |
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