3104 - Infection Prevention: An Academic Partnership

Session Description: Infection prevention is an advancing profession recognized within health care and public health settings. Bridging the chasm from student to professional is important for a successful novice stepping into their career.

A formal educational program has been created between a large university and a multi-hospital academic medical center. This is a 5-credit program with two graduate level courses including a 2-credit instructional course followed by a 3-credit internship. The faculty composition is interdisciplinary and balanced with infectious disease physicians, infection preventionists, nurses, quality specialists, and hospital leadership.

The instructional course is open for all students seeking roles in health care and is a pre-requisite for those advancing to the internship. This course teaches all domains of infection prevention with lectures, case studies, student participation, and exams for evaluation.

The internship is a 12 week fully onsite experience. During this apprenticeship, students participate in daily activities within the infection prevention department. They are socialized as part of the team and department workflow with full access to department resources. Students are actively involved in quality improvement projects, contact tracing, surveillance, and regulatory readiness activities. Each student facilitates a journal club session, presenting the article their analysis of the study, and team discussion. Students completing the internship are awarded a certificate of completion with a passing grade and are eligible for the Associate - Infection Prevention and Control (a-IPC) exam.

Leaders who have contributed to the academic preparation and formation of students are able to recruit candidates, stabilizing the transition into professional practice. There have been 71 students completing the didactic course, and 21 students have advanced to the internship. Following graduation, 11 students accepted professional positions as infection preventionists. This program will assist infection prevention leaders develop an organized internship program with core competencies, skill acquisition and practical learning for students.