Weekly Rounds with Infection Control Today: Recruiting Infection Preventionists
Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending July 2.
Here are 5 highlights from ICT®’s wide-ranging coverage of the infection prevention and control world. Everything from interviews with known opinion leaders, to the news that infection preventionists and other health care professionals can use on their jobs.
Short on Infection Preventionists? Call Some Out of Retirement
Holly Taylor, MPH, CIC: Using retired IPs can “create a little bit more bandwidth within the department when you have potentially prolonged vacancies because we do know that IP staffing vacancies last longer than other health care vacancies.”
Onboarding Novice (and Higher Level) Infection Preventionists
An infection prevention and control department overseeing 28 hospitals created a manual that allowed infection preventions at all levels of experience to function optimally during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Battling C. Auris and COVID-19 at Same Time
Elizabeth Jefferson, PhD, CIC: “You have to really pay attention and make sure that it [Candida auris] stays contained so that you don’t have an outbreak. It just takes one case.”
One Quarter of U.S. Nursing Homes Might Not be Here by Next Year
Almost half of nursing homes and assisted living facilities are operating at a loss, while 84% of nursing homes are losing revenue this year because fewer post-acute patients are coming to them from hospitals.
APIC Backs Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccines for Health Care Workers
The primary organization representing the infection preventionists who often coordinate vaccination efforts at hospitals says that COVID-19 vaccines should be mandatory.
Beyond the Surface: Rethinking Environmental Hygiene Validation at Exchange25
June 30th 2025Environmental hygiene is about more than just shiny surfaces. At Exchange25, infection prevention experts urged the field to look deeper, rethink blame, and validate cleaning efforts across the entire care environment, not just EVS tasks.
A Controversial Reboot: New Vaccine Panel Faces Scrutiny, Support, and Sharp Divides
June 26th 2025As the newly appointed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time under sweeping changes by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the national spotlight turned to the panel’s legitimacy, vaccine guidance, and whether science or ideology would steer public health policy in a polarized era.
Getting Down and Dirty With PPE: Presentations at HSPA by Jill Holdsworth and Katie Belski
June 26th 2025In the heart of the hospital, decontamination technicians tackle one of health care’s dirtiest—and most vital—jobs. At HSPA 2025, 6 packed workshops led by experts Jill Holdsworth and Katie Belski spotlighted the crucial, often-overlooked art of PPE removal. The message was clear: proper doffing saves lives, starting with your own.
