18 November marks the European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD), organised and celebrated every year by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Like every year, the wants to take this occasion to support the ECDC in its mission to raise awareness against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), a serious public health crisis that must be tackled quickly and concretely.
This year’s theme is “Antimicrobial resistance is invisible, I am not”. The aim is to put AMR patients at the centre of political debates, raising their visibility and making their voices heard by policymakers. The ECDC has collected several patients’ stories, that can be accessed at the following link: https://shorturl.at/xlToM.
Frontline nurses play a key role in fighting AMR through AMR stewardship (see the EFN Policy Statement on Nurses Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance). AMR stewardship entails different aspects, including educating AMR patients and their families in understanding their condition, empowering them to raise their voices to be heard by policymakers! Furthermore, by being at the bedside 24/7, nurses, through AMR stewardship, can reduce the demand for antibiotics and ensure that patients are following the correct medication regimen, thus preventing overconsumption of antibiotics, and negative health outcomes. As such, frontline nurse play a key role in infection prevention and control!
However, policymakers must understand that AMR can only be tackled if nurses are given the possibility and means to work at the most advanced level of practice. It is therefore key for the EU and the EU Member States to adapt and develop legislation to enable nurse prescribing! The EFN, in the context of the EU project ENS4Care, has developed a set of evidence based guidelines for Nurse ePrescribing. These guidelines, which build on international standards and EFN Members best practices, are a useful template for policymakers when developing legislation on nurse prescribing!
AMR is not anymore a silent enemy. To tackle AMR frontline, health policies need to be ‘fit for purpose’ and to take up, in systematic way, the nurses’ perspectives!