ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP PROGRAMS ESSENTIAL
Up to 56% of adults in a large U.S. study were prescribed inappropriate antibiotics for bacterial infections, whereas up to 66% received inappropriate prescriptions for viral illnesses. Researchers determined that the findings, reported in the November 2022 Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, provide evidence that the inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics increases patients' adverse reactions, from Clostridioides difficile infections to incidences of nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. The study also set out to demonstrate the effect of healthcare costs associated with inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions.
The study used patient records of adults up to age 64 with outpatient diagnoses of pharyngitis or sinusitis or viral respiratory illnesses including influenza, upper respiratory infection, otitis media, and bronchitis between spring 2016 and fall 2018. The researchers observed that the inappropriate use of antibiotics causes patient harm and unnecessary healthcare spending, spotlighting the need for antibiotic stewardship programs. Learn more in the JCN article, "The Christian Nurse's Role in Antibiotic Stewardship" at journalofchristiannursing.com under Online Exclusives.
INNOVATIVE PLAN TO IMPROVE HEALTH EQUITY
Nurses can improve some social determinants of health for community members through a multisector partnership launched in California. Through Maternal Child Health Access, a community health organization in Los Angeles, and Let's Get Set, a financial online tool, low-to-moderate income families are assisted to apply for and receive tax credits. Up to $12 billion worth of available federal tax credits are typically unclaimed due to mistakes or lack of filing.
The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) are supporting the program that partners with nurses to help financially needy families access the tax credits to increase their income and thus, their health equity. A 2021 government report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed that children from families who received more tax credits had higher vaccination rates and improved cognitive development. Families also can access better food, housing, and healthcare as the tax credits bolster their income. The program offers a toolkit (https://www.letsgetset.co/partner-toolkit) in English and Spanish for nurses and other healthcare workers to initiate conversations with families and patients.
ON EAGLES' WINGS
In Exodus 19:4, God says he bore his people up on eagles' wings. He returns to this picture in Deuteronomy 32:11 (ESV), where God dealt with Israel "like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions."
When an eagle judges that its young are ready to fly, it pushes them out of the nest, forcing them to flap their wings and try to fly. If an eaglet isn't able to do this immediately, it will drop like a stone. But the eagle swoops underneath and catches its young, repeating this process until the young bird learns how to use its wings. It sounds cruel-but it's for the eaglet's good. It needs to learn to fly-that will never happen in the security of the nest. The mother is watchful, strong, and swift to rescue if needed. In the wilderness, the Lord disciplined his people, training them to trust him. With great patience, the Lord caught his plummeting people on his mighty wings.
Can you testify to how the Lord has done this in your life? Haven't there been times when God pushed you out of your comfort zone, out into a terrifying, bewildering, painful ordeal? You felt yourself plummeting-certain you would crash. Then, just in time he caught you and bore you up on his mighty wings.
Look back and see, at least in part, his wisdom in sending trials into your life: illness, failure, disappointment, setbacks, hardships, chronic pain, weakness, loneliness, grief. It may have been a deeply traumatic experience; you may have questioned the Lord's kindness and wisdom: Why would a loving God do this to me? His purposes may have been completely hidden from you.
God is teaching you to fly, to trust him. And if you fail, there is a gracious safety net. By his grace, in his strength, flap your wings and learn to trust him more.-Paraphrased from Peel, W. (2023, January 20). On Eagles' Wings. Gentle Reformation. https://gentlereformation.com/2023/01/20/on-eagles-wings/. Used with permission.
PulseBeats compiled by Karen Schmidt, BA, RN, Contributing Editor