Staff nurses as antimicrobial stewards: An integrative literature review

Background: Guidelines on antimicrobial stewardship emphasize the importance of an interdisciplinary team, but current practice focuses primarily on defining the role of infectious disease physicians and pharmacists; the role of inpatient staff nurses as antimicrobial stewards is largely unexplored. Methods: An updated integrative review method guided a systematic appraisal of 13 articles spanning January 2007-June 2016. Quantitative and qualitative peer-reviewed publications including staff nurses and antimicrobial knowledge or stewardship were incorporated into the analysis. Results: Two predominant themes emerged from this review: ( 1) nursing knowledge, education, and information needs; and ( 2) patient safety and organizational factors influencing antibiotic management. Discussion: Focused consideration to empower and educate staff nurses in antimicrobial management is needed to strengthen collaboration and build an interprofessional stewardship workforce. Conclusions: Further exploration on the integration and measurement of nursing participation is needed to accelerate this important patient safety initiative. (C) 2017 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.