With more than 4,000 nurses at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust (NUH), nurses represent a ‘powerful voice and cohort’ to promote multidisciplinary Antibiotic Stewardship, enhancing patient safety and reducing the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Data collected at NUH ward-based ‘huddles’ during our Trust World Antibiotic Awareness week campaign 2017 described that only 12% of nursing staff felt that appropriate antibiotic use was part of their role.

Teaching and education is an important and 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.

‘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 that they send to the laboratory.

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.

Susan Bowler, Nottingham University NHS Trust