Update from 2018 Winner – Das Pillay Antibiotic Stewardship Award – Sue Bowler

 ‘A truly exciting journey ahead’

‘A truly exciting journey ahead’ were my words after I won the Das Pillay memorial award last year. My journey has continued with engagement and teaching of nursing colleagues and driving quality improvements (QI) to improve the management of infection, antibiotic use and patient care at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

‘Getting Infection right first time’ is a local Microbiology specimen QI project to reduce the number of rejected patient specimens through ward-based nurse education. Joint Biomedical Scientist and nurse-led ward-based education was a successful new intervention enabling staff to meet a scientist and understand what happens to the patient specimens they send to the laboratory. Microbiology specimen training is now delivered monthly for all new registered, unregistered nursing staff and Infection Prevention and Control link professionals.

‘To dip or not to dip’ (TDONTD) QI project aims to reduce the over-diagnosis and treatment of UTIs and was our local focus for World Antibiotic Awareness Week 2018. During the week we launched NO longer performing routine urine dipsticks on admission for adult patients (excluding obstetrics, patients with evidence of Acute Kidney Injury and patients undergoing urological intervention) visiting 25 wards, asking front- line staff to take part in our ‘TDONTD’ trolley dash educational challenge.

Focused ‘TDONTD’ QI projects are also being undertaken and formed part of our NHS improvement UTI collaborative work. Learning has been shared through invitation to national conferences and through case studies for NHS improvement (NHSI) and the launch of the national TDONTD tool kit.

“Teaching and education is an important & expanding part of my role. Barriers to nurse engagement have been identified within nursing literature and can be addressed by improving education in Microbiology and the principles of antibiotic use. For these reasons I have decided to utilise the money I won to further my professional development by undertaking a teaching and learning Master’s module later this year.”

“Being successfully awarded the Das Pillay Antibiotic Stewardship Memorial Award has also supported a business case and my role being made permanent.  As a new (and the first!) Antimicrobial Stewardship & Microbiology Nurse Specialist for the Trust, this exciting journey can continue.”