The IMAGINE Project team has unveiled the initial outcomes of its intervention in nursing homes during the 21st European Medicine Society (EuGMS) Congress, recently held in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The symposium, titled “How to reduce Urinary Tract Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance among institutionalized geriatric patients – Transferring and implementing best practices in Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) and UTI diagnostics”, was co-chaired by Georg Ruppe, EuGMS Scientific Liaisons Officer, and the co-leader of the EuGMS Long Term Care Special Interest Group, Katarzyna Szczerbińska.
More than 100 healthcare professionals dedicated to the health of older adults attended to the 1-hour interactive symposium, where the coordination team Carl Llor and Ana Garcia-Sangenis introduced IMAGINE and its promising preliminary results, immediately followed by Davorina Petek sharing her experience as the IMAGINE coordinator in Slovenia, one of the participating countries, together with Nina Sodja. Slovenia’s experience then opened the floor to an open discussion with the audience, led by Georg Ruppe, on the possibilities of implementing IMAGINE in participants’ practices, not only in nursing homes of the already participating countries but also other settings like hospital wards and other countries, where the IMAGINE material should be translated into their national language. Despite factors like high workload, insufficient commitment from management and high turnover of staff, most of the public considered that it would be feasible to implement IMAGINE in their settings, considering it a simple and relevant approach to reduce urinary tract infections in their practice. In words of one of the attendees, “we should use IMAGINE simply because it works”.
To support the discussion and further disseminate the project outcomes, folders containing all the necessary materials for IMAGINE implementation (registration forms and educational tools) were distributed to the participants. IMAGINE tools were well accepted by the healthcare professionals and were considered useful for them to use in their daily practice. IMAGINE is preparing several toolboxes with instructions and different ways of implementing its approach, that will be available in its website, where currently all the tools are already available (https://imagineproject.eu/toolkit/english/).
The European Geriatric Medicine Society (EuGMS), a partner in the IMAGINE consortium, is the leading forum for geriatric medicine in Europe, dedicated to improving healthcare for older adults. The EuGMS Congress provides a crucial platform for IMAGINE Project to share its progress and improvements in clinical practices in its effort to reduce unnecessary or inappropriate use of antibiotics in nursing homes, strengthen infection prevention and control (IPC), and promote responsible antibiotic management (AMS). Through multifaceted interventions aimed at healthcare professionals, the project encourages best practices to enhance care quality and combat antimicrobial resistance. The countries participating in IMAGINE include Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Denmark.
Moreover, the IMAGINE team would like to express its gratitude to the Long Term Care Special Interest Group (SIG) of the EuGMS for its involvement and active collaboration in the project, as well as to the EuGMS itself for its support and for providing the platform to share the project’s results during the congress. This exchange has laid the groundwork to continue collaboration in future meetings and to work together towards the long-term sustainability of IMAGINE, strengthening its commitment to the continuous improvement of geriatric care across Europe.
