NU636 Unit 6: Assignment Antibiotic Stewardship

Instructions

CDC Antibiotic Stewardship Initiative Discussion Paper

Construct a professional paper that outlines the advanced practice role – as a nurse educator, a nurse leader, or a nurse practitioner – to advance the CDC’s antibiotic resistance initiative. The paper needs to be a minimum of six (6) pages [excluding title and reference pages] consistent with APA style without an abstract page.  The paper is worth 40 points.

Please include the following:

1. Introduction that identifies your advanced practice role and your view of how that role will be able to impact the antibiotic resistance dilemma. Support your discussion with at least two references from the literature.
2. Review the CDC’s goals and identify one of the CDC’s key strategies that you will be able to promote/support in your advanced practice role. Support your discussion with at least two references from the literature.
3. Discuss three activities/actions that you will develop to support the promotion of the key strategy that you identified in item 2 above. Each action/activity needs to be well designed and supported with at least one reference from the literature.  [For example, if you are a nurse educator student  – in what course(s) will you be able to promote your identified key strategies, be specific about what that would look like using example lesson plan(s), identify any active learning strategies you will utilize, etc., and provide justification for your strategies, etc.; if you are a nurse leader student – what program(s) and activities will you engage with relative to your organization, be that existing programs or creation of new programs, reporting mechanisms, development of collaborative committees, etc., and provide justification for your strategies, etc.; if you are a nurse practitioner student – what prescribing practices, patient education practices, monitoring programs, etc., will you engage with, and provide justification for your strategies, etc.
4. The paper is to be formatted according to APA style

Solution: NU636 Unit 6: Assignment Antibiotic Stewardship

Advanced Practice Role and Antibiotic Resistance Dilemma

The country is facing a public health crisis of antibiotic resistance that threatens to undo a century of medical progress. The World Health Organization has projected that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) would rise by 100,000 per year by 2050, making it the third biggest cause of death worldwide. Around five million fatalities were caused by AMR in 2022 (Salam et al., 2023). More than 2.8 million cases of AMR infections and 35,000 fatalities occur annually in the United States, according to the CDC 2019 report on the topic (CDC, 2024a). According to Marcelin et al. (2020), the outpatient setting incurred an unexpected cost of $33.2 billion due to antibiotic misuse. A rise in AMR has the potential to worsen health outcomes, lengthen hospital stays, and reduce safety nets for cancer and surgical patients.

As a nurse practitioner, I am well positioned to take a leadership role in addressing this crisis. In my role, I will be on the frontlines diagnosing and treating bacterial infections across various healthcare settings. This provides me unique opportunities to directly impact antibiotic use and curb the spread of resistance. Through comprehensive patient assessments and prudent prescribing practices, I can minimize unnecessary antibiotic use. All too often, antibiotics are prescribed when the cause is viral or self-limiting. As an NP, I will use evidence-based diagnostic testing like rapid strep and influenza tests to accurately identify bacterial infections and rule out viral causes. This targeted approach avoids subjecting patients to antibiotics that provide no benefit (Palmer & Buckley, 2021). I will also consider the duration of therapy and select narrow-spectrum agents when possible to reduce the development of resistance.

Preventing infections is equally important for solving this problem. I understand the infection prevention strategies that are most effective, like adhering to standard precautions and isolation protocols. As an NP, I am well-positioned to educate patients and promote behaviors that contain the spread of infections. I can advocate for antimicrobial stewardship policies within healthcare systems and work to strengthen compliance with best practices (Palmer & Buckley, 2021).

My role also encompasses influencing antibiotic use on a systems level. As an NP, I will audit prescribing data and work with colleagues to provide real-time decision support and…Please click purchase button below to get full answer for $10

Related: (Solution) NU636 Unit 6: Discussion Allergies