NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 2 Applying Research Skills

NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 2 Applying Research Skills

Student Name

Capella University

NURS-FPX4000 Developing a Nursing Perspective

Professor Name

Submission Date

Applying Research Skills

The emerging problem of antibiotic resistance in this regard requires that healthcare professionals be informed by effective research and evidence-based practices. The specified skills will help the providers to identify patterns of resistance, examine the current approach to the treatment options, and apply safer and more effective modalities of patient treatment (Khan et al., 2024).

The purpose of this assessment is to support the idea that the application of research results in clinical practice can enhance the responsible use of antibiotics, decrease unjustified prescribing, and eliminate the spread of difficult-to-treat infections.

Overview of the Issue

Antibiotic resistance is a significant worldwide health menace that compromises the decades of achievement in healing infectious diseases, resulting in more than 1.27 million fatalities and almost 5 million incidences in 2019 alone (Rayhan, 2025). It is also a huge economic burden, as estimated health care expenditures are US $1 trillion by 2050, and the world GDP loss is US$1-3.4 trillion by 2030 (World Health Organization, 2023).

• Clinical Impact and Interventions

Infection resistance results in increased hospitalization, morbidity, mortality, and illness in real life. To solve this expanding crisis, healthcare practitioners need to take a long-term and integrated strategy that extends beyond prescribing behaviors to correct the issue of antibiotic misuse, poor infection management, and inadequate patient education (Rayhan, 2025).

Clinicians have a chance to implement evidence-based interventions, including stewardship schemes, infection-prevention plans, rapid diagnostics, and patient education, to minimize resistance, maintain the efficacy of drugs, improve their outcomes, and reduce the overall healthcare expenditures by using strong research skills (Handayani & Pertiwi, 2024).

Process for Selecting Academic Peer-Reviewed Journals

The process of identifying peer-reviewed articles on antibiotic resistance started with the proper definition of the problem, which is the emergence of antibiotic resistance, difficulties in treatment, and conditions that promote the misuse of antibiotics. The databases that were searched to obtain relevant and up-to-date information include PubMed, CINAHL, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, where the keywords and Boolean operators (antibiotic resistance AND infection control, antibiotic stewardship AND healthcare, appropriate prescribing OR antimicrobial management) were used.

• Article Selection Criteria Summary

Published articles on interventions, treatment outcomes, or stewardship strategies published in the last five years in English were considered, whereas opinion articles and articles of no clinical relevance were excluded. Among the challenges, there were also duplicate search results, a lack of access to the full text, and a lack of articles that evaluated the results of interventions and not general reviews.

Finally, three articles of high quality were chosen due to their relevance and high-quality methodology: Rayhan (2025) was done on the global burden and clinical impact of antibiotic resistance; Handayani and Pertiwi (2024) was on stewardship programs and primary care prescribing practices, and Alolayyan et al. (2025) on policy- and system-level barriers and suggested strategies to promote responsible antibiotic use.

Credibility and Relevance of Information Sources

The references applied in this review are credible and very relevant to the topic of antibiotic resistance. All the articles are published by reputable peer-reviewed journals, and they have been peer-reviewed by experts in the field. The authors are qualified clinicians, microbiologists, and researchers in the field of public health, possessing experience in antimicrobial stewardship, prevention of infectious diseases, and resistance.

The findings will be published between 2024 and 2025 and are timely, and will meet the current challenges in healthcare. These sources are very empirically based and systematic, hence are useful in academic research as well as practical use in infection control, nursing, and general health.

• Assumptions for Considering Sources Relevant

The most important assumption when using these sources is that peer-reviewed evidence-based studies can be used as a reliable guide to clinical decisions and implemented in various healthcare settings. Another assumption is that the strategies mentioned, which include programs on stewardship, infection-control initiatives, provider education, and responsible prescribing, are effective with diverse groups of patients.

It is also assumed that these sources can indicate the trends in the process of managing resistant infections today and assist in building effective prevention and treatment systems (Mohammed et al., 2025). Since the journals are trustworthy, the authors are professionals in the field of infectious disease and population health, and the research has valid procedures, the data is viewed as trustworthy and applicable to clinical practice.

Annotated Bibliography

Rayhan, M. A. (2025, October 3). The growing threat of antibiotic resistance: A comprehensive review. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17371105

Rayhan (2025) gives a comprehensive description of the threat of antibiotic resistance in the world and how the mechanisms of bacteria and human activity, in particular the abuse of antibiotics in the health and agriculture industry, contribute to a sudden increase in its extent. The article notes the high level of public-health impact, which is a serious problem with millions of deaths every year due to resistant infections, especially in low- and middle-income nations that have fragile surveillance infrastructures.

As advice to the situation, Rayhan supports the idea of a two-fold strategy that focuses on creating novel antimicrobial treatments and enhancing preventive measures with the help of the stewardship programs, immunization, infection-control protocols, and the One Health outlook that interconnects human, animal, and environmental health. This broad overview provides evidence-based policies to the policy makers, researchers, and practitioners.

Handayani, R., Pertiwi, V. (2024). Antibiotic stewardship: How it is implemented in a primary healthcare facility. Pharmaceutical Science. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113102

Handayani and Pertiwi (2024) used a scoping review study to evaluate the role of antibiotic stewardship interventions in primary care. Their review of seventeen studies indicates that antibiotic use and communication between clinicians and patients are enhanced by prescribing guidelines, clinician education, and audit-and-feedback. Nonetheless, the review also mentions such longstanding problems as inadequate patient involvement, uneven application, and inadequate customization of interventions to the needs of the individuals.

The review based on JBI critical appraisal and a systematic methodology suggests that shared decision-making, ongoing monitoring, and more patient-centered solutions are needed to increase the effectiveness of stewardship and decrease the misuse.

• Policy and Societal Challenges

Alolayyan, M. N., Hamadneh, S., Al-Faraj, H., & Abedalkader, T. (2025). Assessing management strategies and societal challenges of antibiotics available policies: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/20479700.2025.2528047

The article by Alolayyan et al. (2025) represents a systematic literature review of the existence of management strategies, gaps in policies, and societal barriers to the use of antibiotics on a global scale. Authors differentiate between intentional and unintentional misuse, with the former covering situations when patients want an antibiotic, but do not really need them, and the latter is caused by the absence of knowledge or the lack of access.

They find that the effects of inappropriate antibiotic use are resistance, an increase in treatment failure, infections, and increased healthcare costs. The review notes that there should be coordination of regulatory policies, sharing of education with its citizens, collaboration of the healthcare system, and well-designed stewardship programs. The study is very extensive, but it has gaps in the sustainability of long-term, cost-effectiveness research, and cultural adaptability of interventions, which makes it an important resource to policy-makers and health leaders who strive to curb antibiotic resistance.

• Overall Gaps across the Three Articles

Despite the fact that the three studies present meaningful information about the topic of antibiotic resistance, there are still some meaningful gaps. Rayhan (2025) describes the burden of resistance globally, but only gives a small amount of evidence on interventions that can work long-term and be scaled. As Handayani and Pertiwi (2024) demonstrate, longitudinal research on patient engagement, patient adherence, and clinical outcomes is required to improve the use of antibiotics, but in the meantime, stewardship and behavioral interventions may help.

• Policy-Level Research Gaps Identified

Alolayyan et al. (2025) are interested in the strategies at the policy and system level, but mention that there are no large-scale, cost-effective interventions that may be implemented in various healthcare systems. Altogether, there is a lack of high-quality research that evaluates both clinical and patient-centered outcomes, and the research on the cost-effectiveness and scalability is limited. There should be more practical studies in the field to inform the practical application of evidence-based stewardship activities.

Insights from Annotated Bibliography Development

The development of this annotated bibliography further enriched my knowledge of the problem of antibiotic resistance in a variety of approaches, such as global burden, stewardship effectiveness, and obstacles to encouraging responsible use of antibiotics. The overview of Rayhan (2025), Handayani and Pertiwi (2024), and Alolayyan et al. (2025) demonstrated the intersection of prevention and education and the coordination of medical activities to achieve better results in the long term.

The process helped me learn to appraise peer-reviewed sources critically, be able to see their methodological strengths and gaps, and agree that more cost-effective studies and interventions should be developed. It also helped me to improve my research abilities, including finding reliable databases, narrowing down search strategies, and generalizing results in various contexts.

Conclusion

This analysis revealed how the problem of antibiotic resistance is on the rise in the international arena. It showed the need to approach patients in a patient-centered way and use antibiotics in a responsible manner. The experience also enabled me to acquire the skill of evaluating the research and identifying evidence gaps.

It also improved my skills in using research to shape future interventions and the practice of healthcare. Also, the process enabled me to enhance my critical thinking in assessing treatment decisions.

Related Assessment for NURS-FPX4000

NURS FPX 4000 Assessment 3