Kelley Knapek Consulting Services

It has been five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Five years since our world was turned upside down—schools closing, wearing masks, plans cancelled, and lives lost. As infection preventionists, we had to make decisions and recommendations based on the most current information...and then pivot as we learned more. Understandably, we encountered a lot of fear, frustration, and anger. As I reflect on that time, I remember the challenges that come with rapidly changing recommendations, but I also remember what worked well. Transparency: When recommendations change frequently or our knowledge on a subject is limited, transparency is crucial for maintaining trust. Communicating how and why decisions are made, along with the research behind it, helps decrease some of the fear and frustration when situations are less than ideal. Humility: Infection preventionists may be the subject matter experts in a pandemic situation, but we do not know everything. Listening to others’ points of view, asking for help, and acknowledging limitations can lead to creative solutions and stronger relationships. Collaboration: Infection preventionists cannot do this alone. We rely on other public health professionals, we rely on healthcare personnel at every level, and we rely on our communities. All these people offer insight, assistance, and support in making sure that we’re not only doing the right thing, but that we are doing it in the right way. Hopefully we will never experience anything like the COVID-19 pandemic again, but if we do, infection preventionists will be ready. #infectionpreventionist #infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #infection #covid19 #pandemic #healthcare #safety #together

Those of us in infection prevention are here because we care. We care about patients, we care about staff, and we care about our community. To keep people safe, we work hard every day making sure policies and procedures are evidence-based, that best practices are followed, and that staff are supported in providing safe care. Sometimes, our work may make us feel at odds with other members of our hospital. We may feel more strongly about certain issues, or other team members may have different priorities. Thats ok! Our job as leaders in infection prevention is to keep fighting for best practices and evidence-based guidelines. To do this, we need to be collaborative, we need to challenge ourselves to see others’ points of view, and we need to be flexible in our approaches.?We especially need to reach out to those who may have differing opinions, and through understanding and mutual respect we can bring them along on our mission. Through these actions, we can create lasting solutions and engagement to ensure an ongoing commitment to infection prevention. “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg.? ? #infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #infection #healthcare #hospital #health #quality #collaboration ?

It’s that time of year when infection preventionists reflect on the challenges and successes of the last year, while preparing for the year ahead. For most facilities, this usually includes some version of an infection prevention risk assessment and goal setting. While it may feel like “checking the box,” the risk assessment and annual goals are incredibly useful for you as the infection preventionist and the program as a whole. Why? Intentional priorities. The saying “if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority” rings true for infection preventionists everywhere. Healthcare has endless infection prevention needs and nearly everything can be considered a priority. If you don’t set data driven and risk-based priorities, you will likely end up focusing on the wrong thing or spreading your resources too thin. ? Leadership support. Having a clear process to assess risks and set goals gives credibility to how you, as the infection preventionist, prioritize your work. Involving leaders throughout your facility ensures that your goals align with the organization goals overall. This can help when you need extra resources for work during the year and allows you to say “no” to lower risk projects, if needed for time management. Preventing burnout. As infection preventionists, we want to “do it all” to prevent infections. Additionally, our scope touches nearly everything in healthcare. If we tried to address everything at once we, as infection preventionists, would burn out and accomplish very little.?By setting intentional, leader supported priorities, we can focus on what is most impactful. We can feel good about the work we do, without worrying that we are ignoring something important. That can keep us energized to do our work, but also allows us to disconnect at the end of the day. The infection prevention risk assessment and goal setting are crucial to the functioning of your infection prevention program. Being intentional and thoughtful while developing these can set you and your program up for success for the year to come. #infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #infection #healthcare #hospital #riskassessment #goals #patientsafety #preventburnout

Using data to support infection prevention in small facilities is one of the biggest challenges these programs face. Low census numbers and infrequent infections make it hard to use the data tools that larger hospitals use. This article in APIC's Prevention Strategist outlines some real ideas that infection preventionists can start using to improve data at small facilities. Some of the ideas in this article that I loved were: *Use internal benchmarking to see how your facility is doing over time. *Report on process measures when outcome measures are small. *Take credit for your data! As the IP, put your name on reports to show your facility the extent of the work that you do. Collecting, analyzing, and acting upon infection prevention data is important for all healthcare facilities, no matter the size. #infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #infection #data #healthcare #hospital #criticalaccesshospital

“It’s just one more thing.” Have you ever heard that? Or have you ever asked staff at your healthcare facility to do one more thing? Those “one more things” can really start to add up for healthcare workers. So how do we, as infection preventionists, stop asking for one more thing in the name of infection prevention? I like to say that it’s our job to make infection prevention easy. We need to make sure that supplies are easily accessible, processes are streamlined, and wrong choices are eliminated. Some ideas to get started are: --Bring frontline staff with you when deciding where to put hand sanitizers. People are more likely to perform hand hygiene when it works with their workflow.? --If you want healthcare workers to use specific products when changing central line dressings, put it in a kit for easy access. If a kit is cost prohibitive, store all the supplies near each other so staff don’t have to hunt down supplies. This makes using those products the easy choice.?? --When teaching infection prevention to healthcare workers, add the infection prevention spin to existing training. This puts infection prevention into the workflow, rather than making it another thing to remember.? When you make infection prevention easy, you not only increase compliance with infection prevention best practices, but you can also decrease stress on healthcare workers and improve the relationship with infection prevention.? #infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #infection #ipc #healthcare #collaboration #onemorething

As we go into respiratory season, we will be using more and more personal protective equipment in healthcare: masks, gowns, gloves, and respirators. In all your time wearing PPE, have you ever thought about how well your PPE protects you and other people wearing it? A recent article by ECRI highlighted how this can be a real concern in healthcare. We know that not all PPE is created equal. Gowns and masks have different ratings based on things like their resistance to fluid, filtration, and more. As an infection preventionist, it is important to know what PPE your healthcare facility is using for what tasks. Ensuring that your PPE adequately protects the wearer allows healthcare workers to safely provide care without getting sick themselves or transmitting infections between patients. So what can you as an infection preventionist do? 1. Know what PPE your healthcare facility carries. See what you order and then check what level of protection that it provides. 2. Know how PPE is being used at your healthcare facility. Does the level of protection align with how it is being used? 3. Work with healthcare workers to make sure that they know how to select the right PPE, when to use it, and how to use it correctly. Good PPE can keep healthcare workers safe this respiratory season, and all the time. #infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #infection #personalprotectiveequipment #ppe #healthcare #safety #respiratoryseason #fluseason https://lnkd.in/gjMEJW8g

With all the excitement of International Infection Prevention Week, I missed a shout out for Sterile Processing Week! It is no coincidence that these two professions share a celebratory week, because the work that we?do is incredibly intertwined. ?Sterile processing is a complex and detail oriented job that embodies infection prevention practices every step of the way. While this department may be hidden from view, their work is crucial to keeping surgeries and procedures running safely. ? ? As infection preventionists, we can support and elevate our partners in sterile processing. Know what is happening in SPD by shadowing technicians and keeping up with the data. Seek to learn and understand the processes and work flow. Use your platform as an infection prevention leader to advocate for the needs of SPD, including staffing, technologies, and recognition. SPD and IP go together like chemical indicators and peel packs!? ? #sterileprocessingweek #sterileprocessing #IIPW?#infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #infection #healthcare?

Wishing everyone a happy International Infection Prevention Week! Infection preventionists are everywhere in healthcare and beyond. We do the work to keep patients safe from infections everyday. This week we celebrate this work--the patients who didn't have to stay in the hospital longer for a UTI, the surgeries that didn't get infected, the influenza outbreak at a nursing home that didn't spread, and, most importantly, the lives we have saved. Happy IIPW week! #IIPW #infectionprevention #infectioncontrol #infection #healthcare #savelives

Did you know that handwashing has been known to prevent disease since the mid 1800s? In 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis started to require people to scrub their hands with a a chlorinated lime solution when moving from the autopsy room to the delivery room. Then in 1848 he recommended that everyone scrub their hands between patients. These findings continue inform how we do hand hygiene today! Today we celebrate Global Handwashing Day to keep in mind this simple, yet lifesaving intervention. Go out and remind everyone to wash their hands!

What an amazing resource for local health departments and long term care!