Guideline recommendations for antimicrobial stewardship education for clinical nursing practice in hospitals: A scoping review

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is a proactive healthcare intervention to improve patient outcomes by optimising antimicrobial use. Although nursing involvement is a recognised necessity, bedside nurses may not yet possess competencies to fulfil this role. OBJECTIVES: To identify recommendations for AMS education for the bedside nurse in key global AMS guidelines. METHODS: Scoping review methodology was used to systematically search published and ‘grey’ literature in PubMed, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, government websites and websites of professional societies and organisations. Search dates were from 1990 to 2020. Inclusion criteria were English language AMS guidelines for hospitals. RESULTS: Literature searches retrieved 1 824 articles, with 43 meeting the review inclusion criteria. Reference was made to AMS nursing education in 23 (53.4%) of the articles. Educational opportunities for nurses were recommended: inclusion of AMS concepts/content into undergraduate and postgraduate nursing curricula (n=12; 27.9%), in-hospital training (n=14; 32.5%) and continuing professional development (n=6; 13.9%). Recommendations for nursing education were as follows: role of AMS in preventing antimicrobial resistance (n=7; 16.2%), infection prevention and control (n=3; 6.9%), diagnostics in AMS (n=5; 11.6%), pharmacology (n=11; 25.5%) and collaboration (n=2; 4.6%). Identified nursing educational gaps were: nurses not recognising their role within AMS (n=5; 11.6%), inadequate nursing resources and expertise for dosing, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic strategies and managing possible drug incompatibilities with extended/prolonged infusions (n=3; 6.9%), and inappropriate nurse disposal of antibiotic waste (n=1; 2.3%). CONCLUSION: Although recommendations for nursing education were found in many key AMS guidelines, few guidelines provided detailed descriptions of the nursing competencies that were required for this role. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY: This study serves to compile and highlight previously little-known recommendations within key international antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) guidelines for the education of clinical nurses in their AMS role. It provides a summary of expected clinical nurse competencies. It adds to current discussion within the literature on how to improve and support this critical nursing role.