In-Service Training

Each hospital should have in place an inservice training programme on the prevention of infections and AMS. The key personnel who should receive this training include:

• Clinicians at all levels
• Pharmacists
• IPC practitioners, and
• Laboratory staff members.

In addition, the basics of IPC should also be provided to administrative personnel and hospital management who come in contact with patients.

In-service prevention training

In–service training should be an annual event and should be offered to all staff in the hospital. The basic in-service training curriculum for prevention should include:

• Contact precautions (PPE, barrier precautions, safe injection practices, respiratory precautions)
• Prevention of respiratory infections especially TB
• Hand washing and hand hygiene
• Waste management and disposal
• Safe injection practices/sharps safety
• Blood and body fluid spill management
• Wound care (if applicable)
• Environmental cleanliness
• HAI’s bundles management SSI, CAUTI, CLABSI, VAP, PLI (for healthcare professionals only)

For staff who will be involved in surveillance of HAIs, the in-service training curriculum should include:

• Importance of HAIs
• Importance of surveillance for HAIs and how this links together with IPC and AMS interventions
• Objectives of hospital-level HAI surveillance
• Compilation of and interpretation of summary laboratory reports (compilation of reports specific to laboratory personnel)
• Surveillance case definitions
• Detailed surveillance methods
• Basics of data management (entry, cleaning, analysis, reporting)
• Surveillance report writing

In-service AMS training

The in-service training for staff involved in the AMS team plus the general clinicians and nurses who are involved in day-to-day care of patients should include:

• Basics of microbiology and pharmacology
• AMS practices
• Quality improvement methodology and science to understand how to implement the interventions sustainably.