CDC recently released a Nursing Home Communication toolkit to help nursing home healthcare professionals better communicate with residents and families on antibiotic treatment expectations. Pressure from family members to prescribe antibiotics to nursing home residents when they may not be needed has been identified as an opportunity for providers to engage in discussion around appropriate antibiotic use. The first page of the “Effective Communication with Residents and Family” toolkit reviews a four-part communication strategy found to be effective in improving antibiotic prescribing in outpatient settings. Two nursing home-specific scenarios applying these principles are presented afterwards.
