Infection Prevention and Control: Core Competencies for Hospital-Based Healthcare Workers

The spread of infectious organisms within healthcare environments impacts patients, healthcare personnel, and the community. Despite ongoing transmission of multidrug resistant organisms such as MRSA, C. difficile and VRE and annually documented episodes of influenza transmission between patients and healthcare personnel and the historic record of SARS transmission magnified within healthcare facilities, there exists no clearly articulated plan of action for the education of healthcare personnel based upon specific infection prevention and control competencies. There exists a number of guiding documents aimed at preventing each of these separate incidents but the gap is in identifying the core competencies and specific measurable activities that each healthcare worker must master in order to stop this chain of events. With the emphasis of pandemic influenza preparedness, there is an increased sense of urgency in identifying ways to improve the practice and the safety within the healthcare environment. This improvement involves the development and implementation of core competencies and the associated activities that work to prevent transmission of infectious organisms. An expert panel developed a set of core competencies modeled after the Clinician Competencies During Initial Assessment and Management of Emergency Events developed by the Columbia University School of Nursing and Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine. The competencies and terminal objectives were vetted using a Delphi technique composed of experts in a variety of healthcare disciplines with additional expertise in infection prevention and control. Training materials, including a web-based training module, were developed that support the educational process across the spectrum of healthcare worker. The web-based module is available via KYTRAIN as a means of expanding this training to the public health workforce as this information is critical to their leadership and involvement in both disease outbreak and disaster response.