Antibiotic Misuse Scenario
A nurse practitioner (NP), working as one of twenty healthcare providers in a convenient care practice, identified challenges in providing high-quality care when patients disagree with the treatment plan and demands something from the provider that contradicts clinical guidelines. For example, patients often demand an antibiotic to treat acute respiratory infection symptoms although it is against evidence-based best practice. For some provider’s, it is extremely difficult to convince some patients that antibiotic therapy is not necessary to treat their illness because they want to get better as quickly as possible and believe that antibiotics are the best treatment. When faced with this controversy in this convenient care setting, providers will reluctantly give patients an antibiotic prescription.
Upon review of quality measure audits, conducted by the practice administrator and medical director, numerous healthcare providers in this convenient care practice were found to have been consistently prescribing unwarranted antibiotics for patients with acute respiratory symptoms in a manner that was inconsistent with best, evidence-based practice guidelines. These findings prompted an open forum with all providers, the medical director, and the practice administrator. Discussion about the issue during the forum found that the most common cause of prescribing unwarranted antibiotics was lack of education about the rationale behind prescribing unwarranted antibiotics and less awareness of antibiotic stewardship program guidelines.
The convenient care team agreed that change in practice was needed to improve antibiotic prescribing practices. The administrator must determine the best, evidence-based intervention to address the problem and decrease the number of unwarranted antibiotics prescribed for patients with acute respiratory infections.
For this group project, your team will identify the problem from the scenario, determine the best evidence-based practice intervention to address the problem, recommend a model for implementation and develop a timeline that describes key steps for implement of the proposed intervention.
Evidence-Based Practice Model Recommendation
In paragraph form
• Give an overview of the scenario
• Describe pertinent details
• It should include a description and brief discussion about the problem identified from the scenario and the intended outcomes.
• It should include a description and brief discussion about the recommended intervention.
• Conclusion should include the restated the purpose of the assignment linked to the identified problem and outcomes, the best EBP intervention, and the recommended EBP Model. Summarize and don’t just restate the information.
In a Chart format
• List the three (3) EBP models
• Briefly and concisely describe pros and cons for each model in relation to the scenario and the selected intervention (1-2 sentences maximum).
• State which of the EBP Models would be most appropriate and give rationale.
• The discussion should include why the intervention was selected (was it the highest level of evidence, the most appropriate for the population, or both?).