CBIC President Explains the New AL-CIP Certification at APIC24

Ahead of the 2024 APIC Annual Conference & Exposition (APIC24) held from June 3 to 5 in San Antonio, Texas, 2024 CBIC president Andrea Flinchum, MPH, BSN, RN, CIC, LTC-CIP, discusses her upcoming year as president of CBIC and her presentation on the new AL-CIP certification. She discusses her goals for her presidency and what she is most looking forward to at APIC24.

CBIC will introduce the “Advanced Leadership Certification in Infection Prevention” in 2025, based on the APIC Competency Model. Focusing on future-oriented skills like research and leadership, the certification will be assessed by portfolio. An overview session will be led by CBIC board members, with a Q&A segment.

“The biggest goal that I have is, along with the rest of the board is to get our advanced certification up and running,” Flinchum told ICT. “But I want all individuals who work in infection prevention and control to understand that certification can be for them, that it's not just for someone who is maybe a nurse, as you know, has been in the past, we have a lot more people working in infection prevention and control. And we have folks from public health [who] work in infection control, which is very kin to my soul because I am now working in public health. But I want us to make sure that the CIC exam and all our certifications remain relevant and important.”

CBIC executive director Jessica Dangles, MBA, MS, PMP, CAE, 2024 CBIC president; Andrea Flinchum, MPH, BSN, RN, CIC, LTC-CIP; and Tori Whitacre Martonicz, MA, at APIC24

(Photo credit: TWM)

Flinchum also explains the difference between FAPIC and the new AL-CIP certification. “The fellowship is primarily honorific and contingent on maintaining membership. However, the difference with the advanced leadership certification is that the award is [from], of course, CBIC. It is a formal attestation following a professional, rigorous assessment process using internationally recognized credentialing industry standards that an individual has demonstrated advanced leadership and regional, national, or global impact. And then, recertification will be required to maintain the advanced leadership CIP designation. All the details have not been ironed out on how that exactly will work for the recertification. But just as our other certification examinations require recertification. This one will not be in the form of an exam.”