Of eight infection prevention core competencies, IPs are most confident in preventing and controlling the transmission of infectious agents, according to a survey of more than 4,000 members of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
Results from the APIC MegaSurvey were published in the June issue of the American Journal of Infection Control. APIC administered the survey in 2015, and 4,079 APIC members participated.
In the practice and competency domain, participants were asked to assess their competency as novice, proficient or expert in the following eight competencies:
- Identification of infectious disease processes
- Surveillance and epidemiologic investigation
- Preventing and controlling the transmission of infectious agents and healthcare-associated infections
- Employee and occupational health
- Management and communication
- Education and research
- Environment of care
- Cleaning, sterilization, disinfection and asepsis
Participants were most likely to say they were experts in preventing infections, with 39.7 percent rating themselves as expert and just 12.1 percent identifying as novice.
On the other end of the spectrum, just 19.1 percent of participants said they were experts at employee and occupational health, and 29 percent said they were novice in that area.
Other areas where IPs identified limited competency were management and communication (22.2 percent expert/15.1 percent novice) and cleaning, sterilization, disinfection and asepsis (22.5 percent expert/23.2 percent novice).
"Future research is needed to identify opportunities to increase competency levels in the weakest-related competency activities," the study concludes.