Tackling antibiotic underdosing: Interview with Ruth Dando, Head of Nursing at BHRUHT

Ruth Dando, Head of Nursing, Theatres, Critical Care and Anaesthetics at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUHT) explains why antibiotic underdosing is a risk to patient safety and describes how she has implemented a change in practice to tackle the issue across BHRUHT.

Antibiotic underdosing is a widespread issue in the healthcare system. The use of modern infusion pumps to deliver intravenous (IV) medications has resulted in the practice of flushing IV lines being lost in some specialties. Failure to give full doses of IV antibiotics poses significant risks to individual patients as well as adding to the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Chapters
01:17 Why is it important to tackle the issue of antibiotic underdosing?
03:11 How does underdosing happen?
04:05 What are the legal implications of antibiotic underdosing?
04:46 How did you go about implementing the change of practice at your trust?
07:58 How did you get frontline staff on board with the new practice?
09:33 What positive impact have you seen so far?
11:58 How can patients, families and carers get involved in helping to tackle underdosing?

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