Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most significant public health issues of the 21st century. Numerous professional guidelines highlight the role of nurses and allied healthcare professionals in enabling and promoting appropriate antibiotic use; however, there is limited data on their knowledge and attitudes regarding AMR, despite the fact that they make up 50–70% of the healthcare workforce globally. The aim of the present study is to assess the knowledge and attitudes related to AMR among nurses and allied healthcare professionals in Hungary.
Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional study was performed, using a 80-item, self-administered questionnaire, which was developed for the purposes of this study. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined during pilot studies (Cronbach’s α: 0.737, Kuder-Richardson KR-20: 0.724). In addition to assessing knowledge and attitudes, the recognition of twelve AMR-related concepts by the participants was also assessed. Data collection was carried out between 01/03/2021 and 01/03/2022. Statistical analyses (descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, Spearman's rank correlation, χ² test) were performed using IBM SPSS 25.0 software. Ethical approval ID (SZTE-RKEB): 170/2020-SZTE; 4851.
Results: Among the n=255 participants in the study, 90.2% were female, 47.8% were employed in inpatient care, and their median age was 44 years (range: 21–67). The distribution of healthcare-related educational attainment was as follows: 30.6% held a vocational qualification (OKJ), 51.4% held a bachelors (BSc) degree, and 18.0% had a masters (MSc) degree. A majority (69.0%) identified their healthcare education as the primary source of their knowledge related to AMR. A positive self-assessment of academic achievement was associated with significantly higher knowledge scores (19.58±5.37 vs. negative: 16.39±5.42; p<0.001), more favorable attitudes (10.53±3.06 vs. negative: 8.36±2.66; p<0.001), and recognition of a higher number of AMR-related concepts (5.37±1.95 vs. negative: 4.70±1.55; p=0.01). No significant differences were observed in knowledge and attitude scores, or recognized AMR-related concepts based on age or level of educational attainment (p>0.05, respectively). Knowledge scores showed a positive, moderately strong, significant correlation with both attitude scores and the number of recognized concepts (r=0.549 and r=0.470; p<0.001 in both cases).
Conclusions: Nurses and allied healthcare professionals play a key role in integrated, patient-centered healthcare and, within the framework of task-shifting, may acquire additional responsibilities and authorizations within healthcare systems, in the context of AMR. The knowledge and attitudes of healthcare professionals related to AMR may have important implications for their daily clinical practice, and these may be improved through targeted educational interventions.
