Driving up standards

Infection prevention and control is a key aspect of healthcare in the quality improvement and patient safety agendas. Media attention and public awareness of healthcare associated infections has led to a sea change in the perception and expectations of the professionals working in this field. Although traditionally infection prevention and control has been viewed as the responsibility of a small number of designated individuals based in the acute healthcare sector, this is no longer the case.

Practitioners in this field now come from a wide range of professions and occupations, bringing skills and knowledge from their own spheres of practice. However, they still require key competences to enable them to practise safely and with clinical credibility in the infection prevention and control arena.

Core competences
The Infection Prevention Society (IPS) has produced a set of core competences designed to define and enhance the practice of staff working in the field of infection prevention and control. The competences were developed in partnership with all four UK governments, Skills for Health and the Council of Deans, through a national steering group chaired by the chief nursing officer for Scotland, Ros Moore. The competency framework is based on the four domains of:
• Clinical practice (six competences)
• Education (four competences)
• Research (three competences)
• Leadership and management (four competences)

Professional development
Each competence comprises a competence statement, and performance indicators aligned to each statement. They also contain generic and specific knowledge understanding and skills needed to meet the competence, and Alignment to Skills for Health, National Occupational Standards and the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (Skills for Health 2010; Department of Health 2004)

The competences may be used in a variety of ways and by a range of professionals from recently appointed infection prevention and control practitioners, through to managers of healthcare services, educational commissioners and providers as well as practitioners working at or near advanced level of practice. Organisations that are looking to develop staff with the expertise to drive forward the infection prevention and control agenda may also find this document a useful tool.

Self assessment Practitioners can undertake a self assessment of their level of competence in any of the competences that relate to their work. This enables them to identify their personal learning needs and develop a strategy to meet them by planning learning and development activities within a defined timescale. The self assessment grid may also be used with managers to inform professional development planning. For example, agreeing on the evidence that would be acceptable to demonstrate competence in an area or discussing the availability of opportunities for particular professional development activities.

Demonstrating competence in clinical practice is an important aspect of professional development in all fields of nursing practice. This framework provides a tool that enables practitioners to show that they have the skills and ability to practise safely and effectively leading to ever higher standards of care being delivered to patients.

For more information
The competency framework is available in both electronic form and hard copy in the Journal of Infection Prevention. Electronic access is free to all and can be located on the IPS website www.ips.uk.net

Alternatively e-mail ips@fitwise.co.uk or phone 01506 811077.

New resource for Scottish care home staff

Care home staff throughout Scotland are set to benefit from a free educational resource for prevention and control of infection. Developed by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS), it comprises a comprehensive DVD learning programme and a CD of additional resources and links to other courses run by NES.

The resource, Preventing Infection in Care
• enables the consistent application of standard infection control procedures across the highly mobile workforce in the care home sector
• helps care home providers meet their responsibility to ensure that staff employed in care homes have the appropriate skills and knowledge to prevent and control infection
• is available to anyone providing care, whether care in the community or at home.
A key requirement in the development of the reseouce was to address the educational needs of staff providing care in the community and care at home with the goal to deliver an equivalent programme of learning for Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) to that available in the hospital environment.          
Commenting on the partnership effort, Malcolm Wright, chief executive, NHS Education for Scotland said: “This project is another example of how we are beginning to work closely with partners in the social care sector. It is our objective to provide integrated education to support models of care which are closer to people in their communities.”

David Cumming, director of operations (programming, co-operation and registration) at SCSWIS, added: “We welcome this new educational programme as a practical resource for those working in care homes and the home environment. This important resource will increase their knowledge and skills in infection control with the aim of improving standards of care and support for those who use services.”