Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs: For nursing practices and their relation to patient outcomes in a Tertiary hospital.

This study assessed nursing compliance with antimicrobial stewardship practices and nurse-reported perceived patient outcomes in a tertiary hospital. A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational research design was employed using a structured electronic questionnaire. The instrument measured four nursing compliance domains—Assessment and Culture Collection, Timely Antimicrobial Administration and Documentation, Monitoring and Adverse Event Reporting, and Patient and Family Education—and three perceived patient outcome domains: Length of Stay, Patient Satisfaction, and Clinical Improvement. Total enumeration was used to invite 100 eligible registered nurses assigned to the Emergency Room, Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and Medical-Surgical Ward of a private hospital in Bulacan, Philippines. Eighty-two nurses participated, yielding an 82.0% response rate. The compliance analysis included 31 administered items, while the perceived outcome analysis included 15 items. Assessment and Culture Collection obtained the highest compliance mean (M = 3.85, SD = 0.26), whereas Clinical Improvement recorded the highest perceived outcome mean (M = 3.80, SD = 0.34). Spearman rank-order correlation revealed a strong positive association between overall nursing compliance and overall nurse-reported perceived patient outcomes (ρ = .770, 95% CI [.625, .884], p < .001, n = 82). A sensitivity analysis using only the first occurrence of identical response patterns demonstrated a moderate positive association (ρ = .524, p < .001, n = 53). Although the cross-sectional design does not establish causation and outcomes were based on nurse perceptions rather than verified patient-level data, the findings highlight the importance of structured nurse education, consistent documentation, patient education, adverse-event reporting, and multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship practices in improving nursing processes and perceived patient outcomes.