Assessment of health care personnel needs for training in infection control: one size does not fit all

Abstract

To guide development of infection control education, we conducted a pilot needs assessment to determine current infection control knowledge, identify potential gaps between knowledge and practice, and identify perceived training needs among a varied group of health care personnel. A total of 23 health care personnel from various disciplines and health care settings completed the self-administered Web-based survey. Differences in knowledge and self-identified training needs were found among disciplines. Future research may well focus on further exploring specific needs of different disciplines. These results will be used to inform topics to cover in infection control curricula for clinicians, public health professionals, and allied health personnel.

Attitudes towards the Infection Prevention and Control Nurse: an interview study

“…Education in IPC is further identified in The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Department of Health 2009) but it is clear that the type of education provided is seen as superfluous if it is repetitive and staff gain nothing from it. It has been suggested that education should be based on a needs assessment to ensure that its provision is of value and meets the requirements of staff (Knapp et al 2008). Previous research has also demonstrated that, while education increases knowledge of IPC, this knowledge is not always translated into practice (Santana et al 2008).…”

Implementing Basic Infection Control Practices in Disaster Situations

“…Broader training in infection control practices is recommended for personnel responding to disaster situations. 15 However, because disasters are unpredictable events, it is likely that personnel who would be involved in responding to the next disaster would lack this broader training. Even with the broad disaster response experience among military personnel, infection control knowledge is likely to vary among responders.…”

Evaluation of a visual tool co-developed for training hospital staff on the prevention and control of the spread of healthcare associated infections

“…Taking the role issue first, there appears to be a spectrum of practice with some tension between meeting jobspecific needs (e.g. [ 6 ]) and meeting the needs of whole service communities (e.g. [ 7 ]).…”