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Background Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common reason for antibiotic prescription in nursing homes. Overprescription causes antibiotic-related harms in those who are treated and others residing within the nursing home. The diagnostic process in nursing homes is complicated with both challenging issues related to the elderly population and the nursing home setting. A physician rarely visits a nursing home for suspected UTI. Consequently, the knowledge of UTI and communication skills of staff influence the diagnosis. Objective The objective of this study is to describe a cluster randomized controlled trial with a tailored complex intervention for improving the knowledge of UTI and communication skills of nursing home staff in order to decrease the number of antibiotic prescriptions for UTI in nursing home residents, without changing hospitalization and mortality. Methods The study describes an open-label cluster randomized controlled trial with two parallel groups and a 1:1 allocation ratio. Twenty-two eligible nursing homes are sampled from the Capital Region of Denmark, corresponding to 1274 nursing home residents. The intervention group receives a dialogue tool, and all nursing home staff attend a workshop on UTI. The main outcomes of the study are the antibiotic prescription rate for UTI, all-cause hospitalization, all-cause mortality, and suspected UTI during the trial period. Results The trial ended in April 2019. Data have been collected and are being analyzed. We expect the results of the trial to be published in a peer-reviewed journal in the fall of 2020. Conclusions The greatest strengths of this study are the randomized design, tailored development of the intervention, and access to medical records. The potential limitations are the hierarchy in the prescription process, Hawthorne effect, and biased access to data on signs and symptoms through a UTI diary. The results of this trial could offer a strategy to overcome some of the challenges of increased antibiotic resistance and could have implications in terms of how to handle cases of suspected UTI. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03715062; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03715062 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/17710

Background Overuse of antibiotics in the elderly population is contributing to the global health problem of antibiotic resistance. Hence, it is important to improve prescribing practices in care facilities for elderly residents. In nursing homes, urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common reason for antibiotic prescription but inappropriate prescriptions are frequent. In order to reduce the use of antibiotics for suspected urinary tract infection in this context, a complex intervention based on education as well as tools for reflection and communication had been developed and trialed in a group of nursing homes. The presents study explored the barriers and enablers in implementing this complex intervention. Methods After the intervention trial period, a qualitative interview study was performed in six of the nursing homes that had received the intervention. The study included 12 informants: One senior manager, four nurses, six healthcare assistants, and one healthcare helper. Normalization Process Theory was used to structure the interviews as well as the analysis. Results The intervention was well received among the informants in terms of its purpose and content. The initial educational session had altered the informants’ perceptions of UTI and of the need for adopting a different approach to suspected UTIs. Also, the study participants generally experienced that the intervention had positively impacted their practice. The most important barrier was that some of the interventions’ clinical content was difficult to understand for the staff. This contributed to some problems with engaging all relevant staff in the intervention and with using the observation tool correctly in practice. Here, nurses played a key role in the implementation process by regularly explaining and discussing the intervention with other staff. Conclusion The results suggest that it is possible to implement more evidence-based practices concerning antibiotics use in nursing homes by employing a combination of educational activities and supportive tools directed at nursing home staff.