Antimicrobial Resistance and Antibiotic Stewardship in Nursing

Antimicrobial resistance is a patient-safety and public-health challenge across the continuum of care. Nurses influence antibiotic safety through assessment, ordered specimen collection, authorized medication administration, monitoring, documentation, communication, infection prevention, education, reassessment, and transitions of care. This self-study course translates resistance and stewardship principles into practical nursing actions while maintaining national scope-of-practice boundaries.

Learning Objectives

• Define Antimicrobial Resistance and Antibiotic Stewardship: Explain their significance to patient safety and healthcare outcomes.
• Explain How Antimicrobial Resistance Develops and Spreads: Describe selection pressure and basic acquired-resistance mechanisms.
• Differentiate Infection, Colonization, and Contamination: Distinguish these concepts when evaluating infection-related information and specimen results.
• Identify Nursing Responsibilities Before Antibiotic Therapy: Perform assessment, collect allergy history, obtain ordered specimens, and recognize signs of deterioration.
• Explain Urgency in Suspected Sepsis or Septic Shock: Recognize that stewardship should not delay urgently indicated treatment.
• Monitor Patients Receiving Antibiotics: Assess for clinical response, treatment failure, allergic reactions, adverse effects, and complications such as Clostridioides difficile infection.
• Apply Diagnostic Stewardship Principles: Use appropriate practices related to specimens, culture results, asymptomatic bacteriuria, and team communication.
• Describe the Nurse’s Role in Antibiotic Reassessment: Support culture communication, antibiotic timeouts, IV-to-oral opportunities, and transitions of care within applicable scope.
• Apply Infection-Prevention Practices: Reduce transmission of resistant organisms while preserving patient dignity.
• Provide Patient and Family Education: Teach appropriate antibiotic use, adverse effects, follow-up, prevention, and medication safety using plain language and teach-back.