Over-prescription of antibiotics in elderly home care patients contributes to an...
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most significant threats to global health in the 21st century, and the inappropriate prescribing and use of antibiotics in community settings is a major driver. Elderly home care patients are among the highest consumers of antibiotics, partly because infections are common in this population and partly because the atypical presentation of infections in older adults (confusion, falls, functional decline rather than fever and rigors) often leads to broad-spectrum empirical prescribing before microbiological results are available.
Home care nurses have a pivotal antibiotic stewardship role: collecting appropriate specimens (midstream urine, wound swabs) before antibiotic initiation, ensuring patients complete full antibiotic courses, monitoring for adverse effects (including Clostridioides difficile-associated diarrhoea, a serious complication of antibiotic use in elderly patients), and educating patients and families about why antibiotic resistance matters and why antibiotics should not be demanded for viral infections.
Mehermedics is committed to antibiotic stewardship education and ensures all placed nurses complete AMR awareness training aligned to the guidelines of the destination country's health authority.
