“Shake It Up” for International Infection Prevention Week

October 17-23, 2021, is International Infection Prevention Week. The theme for this year is an EXCELLENT theme: “Make Your Intention Infection Prevention.”

As we enter autumn, during the COVID-19 pandemic and heading into another influenza season, it is important to keep in mind the intention of Infection Prevention and Control. While the core principles of infection prevention and control for COVID-19 are crucial, there are other important infection prevention and control program components that also need to be considered on a day-to-day basis. Included are Antibiotic Stewardship programs, vaccinations in accordance with the current recommendations, bloodborne pathogens, point-of-care testing, safe medication administration, device management, employee health, food preparation and handling, linen processes including handling and storage, cleaning and disinfection, and much more.

This is a perfect time to get back to the basics because it is in the basics that a foundation and culture of safety begin. Healthcare is weary and tired from this pandemic, so how can we “shake it up” a bit and make the intention of infection prevention fun?

Below are a few recommendations to reengage your team – making your intention infection prevention!

• Prepare – Now, you can celebrate this week with education and information yourself, but it is so much better when you have a team! One creative idea is to choose 10 or so frontline staff volunteers who are creative to assist you in this process!
• Plan – Set up an initial meeting with your 10 staff volunteers:
  • 10 minutes of refresher training and 30 minutes to develop the creative education plan, such as creating a short song/jingle with the basics of each topic. (Example: It’s In Your Hands – the official song for the World Hand Hygiene Day)
    • Develop multiple songs or jingles for infection prevention (with an emphasis on “Make Your Intention Infection Prevention”) for each day of the week, around the topics of:
      • Hand Hygiene
      • PPE
      • Antibiotic Stewardship
      • Cleaning and Disinfection
      • Standard and Transmission-based Precautions
  • Discuss with the team as well as the leadership team to design a template for a song, based upon an area for improvement. Creativity is key! Creative song lyrics go a long way and will be remembered by staff way beyond your education session.
• Implement – Put your plan into action. Your team (not just the Infection Preventionist) will be able to “shake it up” with the facility team and make Infection Prevention and Control education fun and interactive! Break up into 5 groups to address each of the topics listed above.
  • Have a process for a reward/incentive for participation for your volunteers and your staff as a whole. Infection Prevention is everyone’s role!

In coordination with your facility efforts, there are also many excellent resources available from the APIC “Infection Prevention and You” website to distribute to your staff, residents, families and visitors in a Promotional Toolkit.

Infection Prevention and Control guidance has been a moving target for the past year and a half. As the experts learn more, guidance changes and it has been a whirlwind of a time!

This week is also a great time to celebrate your Infection Preventionist(s) who work so hard in your facility to participate in the development of systems, educate, implement, update, audit, compile data, promote action and report the status of your program for quality improvement. Infection Preventionists are the foundation for risk mitigation in your facility. Kudos to the Infection Preventionists who have remained steady and unrelenting in their mission of quality!

Let’s make this year’s theme, “Make Your Intention Infection Prevention” a beginning to how we move forward WITH intention!

#IIPW #InfectionPrevention