Happy Thanksgiving to the Infection Control Today Community

As Thanksgiving arrives, all of us at Infection Control Today^® (ICT^®) want to extend our deepest gratitude to the professionals who form the backbone of patient safety. Infection preventionists (IPs), sterile processing department (SPD) technicians, environmental hygienists, perioperative nurses, respiratory therapists, epidemiologists, and all members of the infection prevention and control (IPC) community work tirelessly behind the scenes. This holiday is a moment to pause and celebrate the individuals whose diligence and expertise protect millions of patients year after year.

While the public may think of Thanksgiving as a time of food, family, and rest, many of you spend these days supporting hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, surgical suites, and outpatient centers that never close. The work continues regardless of the calendar, and so does your commitment to safe, high-quality care. That dedication does not go unnoticed.

IPC is not simply a profession. It is an ongoing promise to safeguard others, often in quiet, detailed, and hard-to-measure ways. It shows up in every risk assessment, every surveillance review, every environmental cleaning checklist, every correctly processed instrument tray, every isolation room that is set up and monitored, and every colleague you gently remind about hand hygiene. It shows up in the long hours spent educating staff, troubleshooting outbreaks, validating workflows, reviewing construction plans, evaluating new products, and preparing for surveyors who arrive when they arrive.

Your work is the reason patients trust the health care system. It is the reason families feel safe sending loved ones to hospitals. It is the reason surgeons can operate with confidence and clinical teams can focus on healing.

This year has brought its own challenges. Emerging pathogens, staffing gaps, rising surgical volumes, changing regulations, and burnout continue to pressure frontline teams. And yet, the IPC and sterile processing communities remain resilient, innovative, and unwavering. Whether you are tracking environmental contamination during a renovation project, managing reprocessing backlogs, leading sepsis or stewardship initiatives, troubleshooting a respiratory outbreak in a school, or training the next generation of IPs and SPD technicians, your impact is profound.

Thanksgiving is a moment to acknowledge that impact. It is a moment to recognize that your work prevents infections that never happen, saves lives that will never know they were saved, and upholds a standard of safety that is easy to take for granted but impossible to replace.

We hope this week brings you time for rest, connection, and reflection. We hope you feel appreciated not only by your colleagues and leadership, but by the broader community that relies on your expertise and vigilance. And we hope you take pride in the extraordinary work you do each day, whether you are in an infection prevention office, an SPD clean room, a decontamination area, a patient room, an operating theater, or a facility corridor.

From all of us at ICT: Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for everything you do to keep patients, teams, and communities safe.