Table 2.
Infection Prevention and Control Infrastructure
| Survey Item | Total (N=51), No. (%) |
Exemplary Quotes |
|---|---|---|
| How many full-time employees (FTEs) are currently dedicated to your facility’s infection control program? | Mean=1.11 (Range 0–3) 3 missing responses |
There was several [talking about IP turnover]… so it wasn’t a new role….. I did it for maybe 2 months before I took back on the assistant director, did it for 2 months, and I did the infection control and education together. [DON NH 3] No, she’s new [noting turnover, when asked if ADON/IP had an infection control background]. Yep, she’s pretty excited about it, and I gave her the manual; I’m like, “Here, read the manual. Start with that.” And then we’ll dig into each chapter from there, but just read it and have a sense of what I’m talking about, ‘cause it’s so huge. [DON NH 2] |
| No. of years [infection preventionist] in that position in this facility | ||
| <1 year | 19/50 (38.0) | |
| ≥1 to <5 years | 18/50 (36.0) | |
| 5 years or more | 13/50 (26.0) | |
| No. of years with infection prevention experience | ||
| <1 year | 10/49 (20.4) | |
| ≥1 to <5 years | 20/49 (40.8) | |
| 5 years or more | 19/49 (38.8) | |
| Are any of the activities listed below also performed by the main point of contact for infection prevention–related issues? (Select all that apply.) |
I just hired an Assistant Director of Nursing, so she’s gonna be taking over my infection control. So, I anticipate it to be, being way better because it’ll be one person doing it versus, I’m the DON doing infection control. Infection control is a huge job, so we are not 100% proficient and always up to date on everything, because I just can’t put the time in that needs to happen. [DON NH 2] If you really want somebody to actually do the whole thing, it should be a full-time job, because mostly our infection preventionist has another job of system development so they do orientation and training and it takes a lot of time so you can’t really focus on rounding, and it’s just difficult for them. [Director of Clinical Operations NH 7] |
|
| Staff education/staff development | 31/51 (60.8) | |
| Director of Nursing (DON) | 14/51 (27.5) | |
| Employee health | 13/51 (25.5) | |
| Resident care | 11/51 (21.6) | |
| Other administrative function | 8/51 (15.7) | |
| Other (eg, resident assessment coordinator, unit manager, staff recruitment) | 11/51 (21.6) | |
| No. of additional activities performed by main point of contact for infection prevention–related issues | Mean=1.7 (Range 1-6) |
|
| Who provides infection prevention–related training to the staff at your facility? (Check one answer.) | I don’t handle the education part – my coworker does – but it’s just on and on. We’re required to do so many and then, whatever gets brought forth. Like, every month, we have to do something related to infection control. That’s our role. So, at least 1 inservice always has to relate and maybe more. But I try to do that antibiotic stewardship too once a year, so they even understand that there are programs…that a program exists. [ADON/IP NH 6] | |
| The main point of contact for infection prevention–related activities | 38/50 (76.0) | |
| Education Coordinator | 21/50 (42.0) | |
| Director of Nursing (DON) | 13/50 (26.0) | |
| Other (eg, external consultants, medical director, home office, online training) | 8/50 (16.0) | |
| Has the main point of contact for infection prevention-related issues (your facility IP) received any specific infection prevention training? (Select all that apply.) | Every DON, staff development, infection control nurse, and a lot of the unit managers have become infection control certified, so that’s…that knowledge right there I think is gonna be very, very helpful in the future especially with the antibiotic stewardship. [VP Clinical Services NH 5] | |
| State or local training course | 16/49 (32.7) | |
| APIC EPI 101 or 201 | 5/49 (10.2) | |
| No specific infection control training | 18/49 (36.7) | |
| Is there a committee in your facility that reviews healthcare-acquired infections (hais)? If yes, indicate the members represented in the committee. (Select all that apply.) | 49/51 (96.1) | [Response to question about who was on the committee] The medical director, the pharmacist, as you said, the administrator, director of nursing, the infection control preventionist, maintenance director, housekeeping, sometimes I do attend a meeting just to, you know, oversee the process. I would like to implement, in the future, not yet the nursing assistant and the nurses on the floor are included in those meetings because of the fact that they are the direct care workers that actually can say, this is what’s actually going on. [Director of Clinical Operations NH 7] |
| Unit managers or supervisors | 44/49 (89.8) | |
| Medical director | 42/49 (85.7) | |
| Nursing administrators | 42/49 (85.7) | |
| Environmental services | 33/49 (67.4) | |
| Nursing staff | 33/49 (67.4) | |
| Pharmacy department | 24/49 (49.0) | |
| Quality department | 18/49 (36.7) | |
| Physician staff | 10/49 (20.4) | |
| Other (eg, facility board members, resident/family council members, dietary services, social workers) | 10/49 (20.4) |