Antibiotic help, please!

guest416560 · Sep 23, 2011

sanfordguide.com

You can download it to your smart phone. I love it. Much easier to use and almost idiot proof compared to the book

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Sep 23, 2011

the other resource I find useful is the Johns Hopkins ABX guide and it's available as an iPhone app.

If you're going to work in an in-patient setting, your best bet is to be friends with the Clinical Pharmacist. Antibiotic prescribing is institution dependent. Antibiotic combos are developed based on information gathered in your community using susceptibility data. Regional susceptibility variations will occur and you'll see that this is reflected in your institution's preferred choices for empiric antibiotic coverage as well as treating speciated bugs while waiting for susceptibility. The other piece of information relevant to antibiotic prescribing is knowing what the patient's GFR is. Fortunately for me having only worked in academic institutions, we've always had dosing guidelines based on GFR ranges that are in a pocket card format. Also, I remember that when I started working in the ICU as an NP, I used to carry around a laminated card with a table of bugs grouped as gram + or -, bacilli vs cocci, anaerobic vs aerobic. It helped with making clinical decisions to empirically treat if all you have are gram stain results. I also found that going to Pharmacology CME's (which is required by ANCC anyway) are helpful in reviewing spectrum of activity for various antibiotic groupings.

NPmimzy75 · Sep 25, 2011

Yes, I feel like my ACNP program was very lacking in antibiotic education! That chart idea is very helpful and thanks for the app suggestions. I get so lost trying to figure out my sanford book.

lvICU · Sep 27, 2011

Thank you both for your input! I have looked at the Sanford book and it was somewhat confusing. I will try the smartphone app and see how that goes.

Jaun - Do you think the Hopkins ABX guide is worth the $$? I have come close to buying it several times but have never gone through. I guess I am afraid that I will be disappointed. Thanks for the information. I will make fast friends with the clinical pharmacists :)

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Sep 27, 2011

Jaun - Do you think the Hopkins ABX guide is worth the $$? I have come close to buying it several times but have never gone through. I guess I am afraid that I will be disappointed. Thanks for the information. I will make fast friends with the clinical pharmacists :)

To be honest, I haven't used it in a while and back when I was a new NP, it was free and only available on the Palm OS PDA's (which only goes to show how many years back that was). I found that it was easier to use than Sanford Guide.

allennp · Sep 28, 2011

Sanford guide for iPad

I am in a free standing UC, 30,000 pt yr , often alone and have learned lots of resources, I think the Sanford guide for iPad is a lifesaver. almost worth the price of the iPad that carries it, lots of other apps of course.

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Trauma Columnist · Sep 28, 2011

I have the Hopkins Guide on my Skyscape platform for iPhone.

I work in nephrology, hence amino glycosides are my friend - lol.

My pts frequently have drug resistant bugs and I do use this as a guide. I have added another program "drugs in renal failure" too.

Like Juan though I have a set few antibiotics that I order a lot so I know the doses of those. Then, if I have something else or a new dosing pattern comes along.

dissent · Sep 28, 2011

At least in the past, the hopkins guide was free if you used it online. You just had to sign up for it. The PDA/smartphone version always cost money. I don't know if they started charging for the online version or not b/c it is obviously free on the Hopkins intranet.

I think the hopkins guide is much easier to use and overall more robust than the sanford guide

lvICU · Sep 29, 2011

The Hopkins guide is no longer available for free. The price is reasonable though and you get access to the information on your mobile and PC. Thank you all for your suggestions. I think I will purchase either the Sanford or Hopkins but I just need to figure out which one will be the most beneficial.