Infection preventionists' current and preferred training strategies and tools

Abstract

Background: Educating health care staff on infection prevention and control (IPC) is an essential role of infection preventionists (IPs), but the COVID-19 pandemic diverted resources away from IPC education.

Methods: Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology members were invited to complete an online survey from spring 2023 to assess current and preferred approaches and tools for training health care personnel on IPC. Vendors, retirees, APIC staff, or those not working in health care or public health were excluded.

Results: In all, 2,432 IPs participated. IPs were more likely to report engaging in impromptu health care worker training (ie, just-in-time teaching and team huddles) versus planned educational activities (ie, learning modules, formal presentations, train-the-trainer, or simulation; Kruskal-Wallis = 288, P < .001). IPs' top preferred teaching methodologies included simulation or interactive activity, and their lowest preferred approach was independent learning modules. IPC training apps were frequently requested technology.

Discussion: IPs ranked simulation as their top preferred teaching method; however, simulation was one of the least frequently used approaches. IP education should include strategies for delivering effective impromptu training and how to develop and implement interactive simulation-based education.

Conclusions: The expressed needs and preferences of IPs should be considered when developing IPC-related teaching and training tools.

Keywords: Infection prevention; Simulation; Simulation-based learning; Teaching; Technology.