Title: Patient and Family Engagement in the Prevention of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections and Antibiotic Resistance
Description: This dissertation aims to explore the role of patient and family engagement in the context of two current health issues: catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and antibiotic resistance. Chapter One contains an introduction to patient and family engagement, CAUTI, and antibiotic resistance, followed by gaps in the science, a description of the theoretical framework, and specific aims addressed in this dissertation. Chapter Two is a systematic review of existing CAUTI prevention interventions that involve patient and family engagement. Chapter Three is a study designed to meet the learning needs of parents by developing a graphically-enhanced CAUTI-prevention educational resource using participatory design methods. Chapter Four is an environmental scan that summarizes the content and format of existing resources about antibiotic resistance and antibiotic use available from children’s hospital websites across the United States. Finally, Chapter Five contains an overall summary of the findings of this dissertation, a discussion of results within the guiding theoretical framework, practice and policy implications, and suggestions for future research.