A Multidisciplinary Approach to Incorporate Bedside Nurses into Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection Prevention.

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship programs exist to promote appropriate antimicrobial use. The Joint Commission has reported that although many US hospitals have implemented basic components of antimicrobial stewardship programs, there now exists a need for innovative, multidisciplinary approaches, including involving frontline clinicians such as bedside nurses.

Methods: A retrospective evaluation of bedside nurse-driven antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention rounds was conducted on a 31-bed telemetry unit of a community regional medical center.

Factors and outcomes associated with the decision to treat primary pulmonary coccidioidomycosis.

Background: Studies that assess the value of initiating oral antifungal therapy to treat primary pulmonary coccidioidomycosis have not been published previously.

Methods: Prospectively collected observational data were analyzed from patients with primary pulmonary coccidioidomycosis who attended a single clinic devoted to the management of coccidioidomycosis that is located in a region of coccidioidal endemicity.

Results: Fifty-four of 105 patients with primary pulmonary coccidioidomycosis were prescribed antifungal therapy, whereas 51 were not.

Fatigue in coccidioidomycosis. Quantification and correlation with clinical, immunological, and nutritional factors.

While described in the past, the frequency and degree of fatigue associated with symptomatic coccidioidomycosis has never been quantified. Using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), severe fatigue (FSS score = 41) was found in 65% of cases of active coccidioidomycosis compared to 42% in cohort of control subjects with chronic medical diseases (P=0.024).