1208 - Chaos to Cohesion; Building an Infection Prevention Department

Session Description: Building and sustaining an effective and engaged Infection Prevention Department can be challenging, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. These challenges include: staffing, turnover, leadership, communication, and training and education of new staff.

The strain of Covid-19 had left the department with critical staffing and leadership shortages. Hiring and training department leadership and staff was the key first step. A new role of manager had been created to help the new director with the complexities of leading a multihospital division of a university medical center. The director and manager worked together to carefully interview and hire new Infection Preventionists, some of whom had little to no experience in Infection Prevention, who they felt were in alignment with their vision of the department. Once hired and trained, assignments and coverage was established. The manager and director covered for one another. Each novice Infection Preventionist covered for another novice Infection Preventionist while the senior team members covered for each other. This system of coverage allowed for there to always be one leader, at least one senior team member and one novice team member on site and maintained coverage for all assignments.

Communication for a large department is also key. Using white boards, a morning huddle was established each day. All key information for the day, week and month are added and always visible for the team.
Because promoting a work-life balance is also important in building a team and fostering engagement, rules for working from home and flexible scheduling were developed.
Team building events and celebrations occurs regularly and are funded through sunshine club donations.
Mindfulness is a continuous focus of the team and enwoven into all team activities. This is mortar to promote overall well being of the department by reducing stress and promoting happiness in the workplace.