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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
The paper is to be formatted according to APA style.
Sample Answer
Introduction that identifies your advanced practice role and your view of how that role will be able to impact the antibiotic resistance dilemma.
Antibiotics are used globally to treat various infections disorders and other health derangements. However, over the last years, the use of antibiotics has raised concerns among various stakeholders due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance (AR) occurs when microorganisms such as bacteria are no longer killed by drugs designed to kill them. The AR occurs either naturally or due to misuse of antibiotics. The emergence of AR poses a serious threat to the health of human beings and food safety, and therefore there has been a concerted effort by various health stakeholders to ensure prudent use of antibiotics to control the AR and its impacts. Each health care stakeholder must play a role in ensuring that necessary actions are implemented sequentially (World Health Organization, 2018).
A nurse practitioner’s role in controlling AR and ensuring prudent use of antibiotics includes exercising caution when prescribing drugs for their patients; in some states, nurse practitioners have been granted the right to prescribe drugs; therefore, NPs can be able to control AR by ensuring antibiotics are only prescribed when necessary. NPs can also play a role through advocacy; since most nurses are at the bedside and are administering the drugs, they should question the unnecessary use of antibiotics in managing illnesses and observe proper techniques in collecting blood and urinary cultures. NPs are also in direct contact with patients and should educate them on antibiotics and discourage them from using antibiotics unless prescribed by a care provider. Advanced nurse practitioners participate in policy development at the institutional, local, and state levels. Therefore, they can contribute to the development of laws and regulations that will guide the use of antibiotics; for example, antibiotic prescriptions can be regulated and limited to care provider prescription only (Gotterson et al., 2021).
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
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes the health threat that antibiotic resistance poses for human wellbeing. Antibiotic Resistance compromises the successful treatment of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, medical advancements such as surgery and cancer treatment, and efforts to achieve global health goals such as mortality reduction. Antibiotic resistance is estimated to cause the death of 214,000 babies from blood infections. Every year it is estimated that 2.8 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant infections, which results in the death of about 28,000 people. Antibiotic resistance is widespread, with estimates indicating that more than 60% of the population carries the resistant bacteria in some areas. Additionally, resistance is costly. The projected cost of treating a resistant bacterial illness is $700, limiting patients’ access to medical care (Center for disease control and prevention, 2020).
In response to the threats posed by antibiotic resistance CDC works together with other organizations to achieve the goals established by the nation, including; slow the spread of resistant bacteria and infections, strengthening national One-Health surveillance efforts, supporting advancement in the development and application of rapid diagnostic tests for the detection and resistant bacteria characterization, and promote international collaboration and capacity for the surveillance, and prevention of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic research. Some of the strategies employed by the CDC include promoting the prevention of antibiotic-resistant infections through increased surveillance and improving the use of antibiotics; detecting, responding, and containing resistant pathogen by supporting the use of advanced laboratory and diagnostics, and empowering epidemiology capacity for response in state and local health departments. The CDC is also working with other organizations to promote the discovery of new drugs, diagnostics, and intervention strategies by funding research and promoting collaborations between care providers and academic institutions (Center for disease control and prevention, 2020).
Discuss three activities/actions that you will develop to support the promotion of the key strategy
To support CDC strategies such as promoting prevention of antibiotic-resistant infections through increased surveillance and improving the use of antibiotics. Detecting, responding, and containing resistant pathogens by supporting the use of advanced laboratory and diagnostics, a nurse practitioner should focus on the development of guidelines to determine the appropriateness of the antibiotic prescription, design an education program on antibiotic resistance, and advocate for the establishment of diagnostic surveillance protocols in the clinics (MacDuff et al., 2019).
