Nurses in rural and remote settings access this program to increase their knowledge, skills and participation in optimising antimicrobial use, antimicrobial stewardship activities and tackling the problem of drug resistance.
Implementing an AMS Nurse Education Program for Rural and Remote Nurses
Summary
Aim
To increase the awareness, knowledge and skills of nurses working in rural and remote Queensland in antimicrobial stewardship.
Benefits
There has been increased engagement of facilities across South West Hospital and Health Service (HHS), quantified by increase calls to the Queensland Statewide Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (QSAMSP) Infectious Diseases (ID) Hotline and attendance at weekly clinical rounds.
Background
At QSAMSP, our goal is to unite Queenslanders to enhance the use of antimicrobials now and to preserve them for future generations by advancing clinical practice, education and research.
QSAMSP is a multidisciplinary team, made up of infectious diseases physicians, pharmacists, nurse and coordinator.
Solutions Implemented
The program initially made use of Cisco/ Retrieval Services Queensland telehealth facilities so nurses could participate as a group while still socially distancing. Weekly sessions structured around case presentation of patients admitted to the facility and prescribed antimicrobials. A Teams platform was adopted for further roll out of the program that allowed for recording of sessions (on Microsoft Stream) for nurses that couldn't attend and use of QR codes for utilising Microsoft forms for attendance registration and feedback.
Evaluation and Results
A three-month evaluation of pilot program in South West HHS through phone and video-link requested feedback from facility Directors Of Nursing, Nurse Educators and Indigenous Program Coordinators.
Lessons Learnt
After good initial weekly attendance, numbers dropped off and pre-session reminders needed to be sent. Only one session had no attendance in the first three months. Sessions needed to be able to be adapted and new presentations available each week to keep regular attendees interested.