Arlington, Va. June 30, 2021 – Much has been made of the heroic work of nurses and doctors during the coronavirus pandemic. What about infection preventionists? Their job was to keep these workers and their facilities safe. Many Americans don't even know they exist.The 48th Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) featured a presentation by the head of infection prevention at a New York City hospital. It was a diary that infection preventionists kept in real-time during the peak of the pandemic.Nearly 50 IPs completed over 150 surveys in 14 rounds during those dark months. They also spoke out about the fear experienced by frontline medical staff."Fear of PPE dearths creating panic... Hoarding of PPE and possible theft...adding to the crisis."These surveys reveal how frontline medical staff lack confidence in their knowledge of basic infection prevention techniques designed to protect them from infection. They also show how IPs have gained new visibility and importance among medical teams that once considered them lightly."Lots and lots of people [IPs] were shocked to learn that they [staff] weren't able to properly remove PPE.""I never thought I'd see the time when product consumption (hand soap, alcohol-hand rub) would be so high."From sixteen states in the United States and four other countries, the IP respondents wrote that they worked an incredible amount of overtime, averaging 68 hours per week for March and 51 hours for April."This week seemed like 6 months compressed into a 7-day span."Respondents also shared their experiences with a shortage of personal protective equipment. Tania N. Bubb PhD, RN CIC, FAPIC, Director, Infection Control at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, shared her experiences with PPE shortages.Bubb, who analysed the survey results and will present them at the APIC Conference said that many IPs felt "never before as validated" as professionals.Survey comments revealed that there were also contradictions."I am included at the decision-making tables, but nobody will listen me as an IP. They are just listening to me. They refuse to cancel elective surgery and I fear that we will run out of gloves [in] a month when the pandemic peak[s] and there won't be any gloves for emergent procedures."Starting March 8, 2020, IPs received a weekly link to a voluntary survey. Surveys were sent bi-monthly from May 15 to July 15, 2020, based on participant feedback. Bubb and his colleagues used descriptive statistics for quantitative analysis and thematic analysis to analyze qualitative data.###About APICAPIC's Annual Conference was held June 28-30. It featured more than 100 educational sessions by experts from around the world. The conference was attended by researchers, epidemiologists and educators as well as administrators and medical technologists. They provided strategies that can immediately be used to improve healthcare safety and prevent future infections. Use the hashtag #APIC2021 to join the conversation on social media.Through the prevention of infections, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology is making the world safer. Nearly 16,000 APIC members create and direct infection prevention programs that save lives, improve healthcare facilities' bottom lines, and increase productivity. APIC's mission is accomplished through advocacy, data standardization, patient safety, education and implementation science. Visit us at www.apic.org.
