Awareness of antimicrobial stewardship among nurses in a tertiary care hospital, Mumbai

Dr Rahul S Kamble; Shweta Sawant

Volume : VI, Issue : XI, November - 2017

Awareness of antimicrobial stewardship among nurses in a tertiary care hospital, Mumbai

Dr Rahul S Kamble, Shweta Sawant

Abstract :

Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) aims to improve the quality of care and clinical outcomes of patients requiring treatment or prevention of infection, while reducing adverse events and preventing the emergence of antibiotic resistance in local pathogens. The present study aimed to study the awareness of AMS among 100 nurses in a tertiary care hospital in Mumbai. A self–instructional module of AMS was distributed to nurses based on pretest results and after 7 days posttest was conducted. Nurses had satisfactory knowledge regarding antimicrobial resistance as regular MRSA screening and induction programmes were conducted in the hospital. Study group had suboptimal knowledge regarding antibiotic prescribing and AMS strategies. Post education, nurses within poor knowledge were significantly shifted to a category describing better knowledge (p<0.05). Antimicrobial stewardship awareness among nurses should be improved by way of educational interventions and reinforcement of the same.