Antimicrobial resistance: what can nurses do?

Antimicrobials have enabled huge advances in modern medicine. Without them, routine surgery such as hip replacements and immunosuppressive treatments, including chemotherapy and transplants, would be difficult, if not impossible.

Over the past 50 years, many antimicrobials have been produced (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 2016). However, their widespread misuse has led to the development of resistance in bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. The development of new antimicrobials is slow and expensive, and when new drugs are produced it is only a matter of time before resistance to them emerges.

Infection with resistant organisms increases mortality, duration of illness, length of stay in hospital and cost (World Health Organization (WHO), 2018). Microorganisms may develop multiple resistances to antimicrobials, becoming all but impossible to treat (WHO, 2018). Five years ago, the WHO (2014) raised concerns about the magnitude of the problem of antimicrobial resistance and its implications for modern health care, highlighting the alarming possibility of the return to an age where minor infections can kill.