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 Last modified June 9, 2004  

Reviewing and reinforcing: New directions in infection control education

“Besides reinforcing and reviewing infection control practices in clinical practice and labs in each new rotation that students enter, all students and faculty are now required to complete a mask-fit testing program before being allowed to enter clinical settings.”

The importance of up-to-date infection prevention and control standards became evident during the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) last year. The College responded with a major revision to the practice standard Infection Prevention and Control. Not only did the outbreak change how facilities now handle infection issues, it led educators to re-evaluate how they teach the topic to nursing students.

“The SARS outbreak served as an important opportunity for us, as nurse educators, to revisit the threading of this important content throughout our program,” says Susan Sproul, RN, MScN, a professor in Durham College’s joint nursing program with the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). “Subsequently, we have reinforced the course content in relation to this concept and have put particular emphasis on the respiratory transmission of infection.”

“The amount of instruction in infection control has increased in recent years,” says John Stone, RN, BScN, MA, CPMHN(C), a professor at Toronto’s Humber Institute of Technology and Advance Learning’s collaborative nursing program with the University of New Brunswick. “Besides reinforcing and reviewing infection control practices in clinical practice and labs in each new rotation that students enter, all students and faculty are now required to complete a mask-fit testing program before being allowed to enter clinical settings.”

The emphasis on respiratory transmission and the new mask-fit programs are a direct result of the challenges nurses faced during the SARS outbreak. Many nurses found the masks uncomfortable and were concerned that they provided little protection. Nurses also found the masks affected the establishment of a therapeutic nurse-client relationship.

Handwashing — emphasized in the new Infection Prevention and Control practice standard as the single most important aspect of infection prevention and control — is continually reinforced, say Sproul and Stone.

“Good handwashing is the basis of any infection control practice and always can be practised in some form anywhere,” says Stone.

Early in the first semester of Durham/UOIT and Humber’s nursing programs, students are introduced to many infection prevention and control concepts. “Instructors focus on principles such as handwashing, the chain of infection, nosocomial infections and standard precautions,” explains Sproul. “The concept of client hygiene is also discussed and we refer to CNO’s infection control guidelines.”

Other aspects of infection prevention and control are woven throughout the second semester’s microbiology course, when students investigate infectious conditions.

Similarly, the Humber Institute has incorporated infection prevention and control material into its curriculum.

Both facilities have also consulted outside experts to emphasize how infection prevention and control work in the real world. For example, Durham College and UOIT faculty work closely with practicum agencies in which nursing students are placed.

“We discuss infection control practices undertaken by our practicum placement partners with our students,” Sproul says. “One agency developed a CD-ROM focusing on SARS precautions, which we shared with the nursing students.”

When effective prevention methods are used, transmission is prevented, and there is much less need for control measures. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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