| Wednesday, July 11, 2007: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM | |||
| Investigating Antibiotics: How to choose what to prescribe in the Acute Care Setting | |||
| Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to cite research which supports culture directed use of antimicrobial agents in the acute care setting. | |||
| Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to understand antibiograms and how to choose an evidence-based empiric antibiotic regimen. | |||
| We live in an era in which multi-drug resistant organisms are causing severe infections in many patient populations. Discerning the most appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy to prescribe in the acute care setting is a difficult challenge. Prescribing antibiotics which are chosen following evidenced-based guidelines can save lives. Among ICU patients the rate of nosocomial infection is 5-30%. These infections drastically increase mortality, morbidity, and health care costs. Through data collection and detailed review of all culture results, the most appropriate empiric antibiotic can be determined to decrease mortality. Initiating appropriate antibiotic therapy which covers the potential pathogens that are prevalent within given patient populations will decrease mortality dramatically, if started within the first twenty four hours of the onset of infection. The potential spectrum of pathogens has greatly diversified over the last decade making the ability to choose the most appropriate antibiotic increasingly difficult. Extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) resistant pathogens, pseudomonas aeruginosa, and acinetobacter baumannii have emerged as some of the most prevalent nosocomial pathogens. Choosing a broad spectrum empiric antibiotic regimen which will cover appropriate pathogens and not contribute to resistance is an integral part of the nurse practitioner role in the acute care setting. This session will describe to participants how to choose such a regimen using the best available evidence. | |||
| Organizer: | Mary Wyckoff, PhD, APRN, BC, CCNS, CCRN | ||
| Overview of antimicrobial resistance: A global perspective of the problem Douglas Houghton, MSN, ARNP, CCRN | |||
| Nosocomial Infection Mary Wyckoff, PhD, APRN, BC, CCNS, CCRN | |||
| Utilizing Antibiograms to Prescribe Antibiotics Nichole A. Crenshaw, ARNP, MSN | |||