Q&A: Thanks to COVID, Masks Are Here to Stay
February 23rd 2021Daniel Burnett, MD, MBA: “The aerosols, the things that are the true danger and that can hang in the air for hours, depending on their size, are still released around the edges and around the nose of cloth masks. A cloth mask does very little to protect you.”
Q&A: COVID Variant Tests? ‘We’re Kind of Flying Blind’
February 12th 2021Kevin Kavanagh, MD: “Throughout the history of evolution, and even through the history of mankind, you’ve seen species get wiped out. You’ve seen civilizations of man fall because of infections. And the thing that differentiates us from a tadpole is our science and our knowledge. And if we don’t take advantage of that….”
APIC’s President Talks About Infection Preventionists and Burnout
February 5th 2021Ann Marie Pettis, RN, BSN, CIC, FAPIC: “COVID-19 just never seems to let up. And every time you think you might be making a little bit of progress, some new thing comes along, like right now with potential resistance because of mutations. You can never let your guard down.”
Q&A: Be Creative with COVID Vaccination Efforts
January 28th 2021Mary Jean Ricci MSN, RNBC: “[Infection preventionists] really need to think about how we’re getting people from the assessment area to the vaccination area to the evaluation area in a unidirectional flow so that we don’t have the spread of the virus at the time of inoculation.”
Infection Preventionists Must Teach Value of COVID Vaccines
January 27th 2021Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC: “Infection preventionists need to remind people to be vigilant both in health care and outside of health care. Because we’re not done with this yet. We have a long way to go before we’re fully protected.”
Pssst! Vaccines Can’t Guarantee COVID Immunity
January 15th 2021Linda Spaulding RN, BC, CIC, CHEC, CHOP: “There’s not enough literature out there yet to say that once you get the vaccine, you won’t get COVID again, and the literature that is out there says that once you get the vaccine, even if you don’t get COVID again, you can still be an asymptomatic carrier.”
Endoscope Cleaning: What Infection Preventionists Should Know
January 7th 2021Linda Spaulding RN, BC, CIC, CHEC, CHOP: “Infection preventionists need to learn how to clean an endoscope, or at least observe the cleaning…. Infection preventionists need to make rounds, they need to talk to the person processing.”
Better Protection from COVID Needed for Providers
December 30th 2020Kristy Warren: “We need to do everything we can to help protect our providers when performing these aerosol generating procedures. And subsequently those providers that enter the room or exit the room after these procedures have occurred.”
Q&A: ‘It’s Far Worse Than COVID’
December 28th 2020Ravi Starzl, PhD: “If you’re constantly focused on trying to escalate the war of destruction, I think that the bacteria will always win that war. They just have too many countermeasures available to them and our rate of developing new antibiotics is far slower than their rate of developing countermeasures.”
Q&A: ‘Are You Going to Get the Vaccine?’
December 17th 2020Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA: “We have to remember that infection control and prevention is not just dealing with the pathogen itself but dealing with the consequences and the downstream effects of what happens when you are dealing with the pathogen.”
Bracing for ‘Logistical Nightmare’ of COVID Vaccine Distribution
December 9th 2020Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC: “If it were my institution, I would make sure that infection preventionists are educated on everything they need to know about the COVID vaccine, as well as the flu vaccine side effects.”
Infection Preventionist: ‘We On the Frontlines Have to be Strong’
December 3rd 2020Rebecca Leach: “I think the biggest thing is just having support, whoever it is. If it’s a fellow infection preventionist…. It really is that emotional support of being able to talk to each other about your experiences and really process your feelings.”
Healthcare Workers Hit by COVID Need Workers Comp
November 17th 2020Kevin Kavanagh, MD: “We can’t just bury our heads in the sand and bleed through healthcare staff and bleed through PPE, thinking that this is not going to be something that’s going to cause severe problems in these individuals, or that it’s going to magically disappear next week."
Q&A: Stethoscopes Carry Loads of COVID, Other Pathogens
November 17th 2020W. Frank Peacock, MD, FACEP, FACC, FESC: “When I intubate somebody, I need to know where the tube is, and I need to know now—like within 10 seconds. You can’t tell with anything else. Nothing is as fast as the stethoscope. I can get an X-ray, but I’ve got to wait for the X-ray while you hold your breath.”
Q&A: Infection Preventionists Keep Hospitals on Track
November 17th 2020Caitlin Stowe, CIC, MPH, CPHQ, VA-VC: “The cool thing about being an infection preventionists is that I call myself the jack of all trades, but the master of really none. Because you really have to know a little bit about everything.”
Q&A: Infection Preventionists, OR Nurses Team Up
November 13th 2020Linda K. Groah, MSN, RN, CNOR, NEA-BC, FAAN: “Historically, we have not always had the best relationship. There’s been some competition between infection preventionists and OR managers or directors. The operating room has been that secret area behind the double doors.”
Q&A: Dealing with COVID the Chameleon
November 10th 2020Fibi Attia, MD, MPH, CIC: “There is a daily meeting where we talk about the possibility of getting those COVID vaccines and where are we going to store them. How are we going to distribute them? How many doses do we need? Those kinds of things are being discussed on a daily basis.”