Staff nurses' antimicrobial stewardship practices and performance confidence relative to patient safety culture

Abstract

Current antimicrobial stewardship guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest staff nurses play a key role in the stewardship process. The American Nurses Association (ANA) supports the CDC guideline and has charged nursing leaders with allotting organizational resources and aligning their workplace culture to support nurses’ role. Despite national attention on nurses' involvement in antimicrobial stewardship, there is neither research describing practices used by nurses that impact antimicrobial stewardship processes; nor, is there understanding about how organizations' patient safety culture influences nurses' role in stewardship. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation study is to determine pediatric and adult staff nurses' understanding of current practices that support antimicrobial stewardship, nurses' confidence to perform stewardship practices, and the influence of organizational patient safety culture on practices.