Background: Registered nurses perform numerous functions critical to the success of antimicrobial stewardship but only 63% of pre-registration nursing programmes include any teaching about stewardship. Updated nursing standards highlight nurses require antimicrobial stewardship knowledge and skills.
Aim:To explore the delivery of key antimicrobial stewardship competencies within updated preregistration nursing programmes.
Method:A cross-sectional survey design. Data was collected between March and June 2021. Findings: Lecturers from 35 universities responsible for teaching antimicrobial stewardship participated. The provision of antimicrobial stewardship teaching and learning was inconsistent across programmes with competencies in infection prevention and control, patient centred care, and interprofessional collaborative practice taking precedent over those pertaining to the use, management, and monitoring of antimicrobials. On-line learning and teaching surrounding hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, and immunisation theory was reported to have increased during the pandemic. Only a small number of respondents reported that students shared taught learning with other healthcare professional groups.
Conclusion:There is a need to ensure consistency in antimicrobial stewardship across programmes, and greater knowledge pertaining to the use, management and monitoring of antimicrobials should be included. Programmes need to adopt teaching strategies and methods that allow nurses to develop interprofessional skill in order to practice collaboratively.
This is the third and final article related to the endocrine system and centres on the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone. Initially the normal cyclic hormonal events of the menstrual cycle are described followed by an account of the use of hormones for hormonal replacement therapy and contraceptive purposes. Campbell and Pickard (2007) report on the National Statistics report of 2005 stating that 62 million prescriptions for combined oral contraceptives and 12 million prescriptions for progesterone only contraceptives were issued. This highlights the enormity of contraceptive use and the likelihood of the healthcare assistants and assistant practitioner encountering this medication.
In relation to physiology and pharmacology there are two important considerations to note when administering medicines. Can the drug be effectively metabolized, and can it be effectively excreted? Examination of the individual's liver and renal function, and the presence of any co-existing disease, will determine the answers. Having discussed the liver in the first part of the series, this article will look at the renal system, common disorders and the pharmacological interventions used to treat some of those.
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