Ms. Rebecca Scott1, Ms. Terri Butcher3, Ms. Joanna Price2, Ms. Robyn Starr3, Dr. Annaliese Van Diemen1, Dr Finn Romanes3
1North Eastern Public Health Unit (NEPHU), Heidelberg, Australia, 2South Eastern Public Health Unit (SEPHU), Mulgrave, Australia, 3Western Public Health Unit (WPHU), St Albans, Australia
Biography:
Terri, Jo, Bec and Terri are Infection Prevention & Control CNC's working the metropolitan local public health units in Victoria. They have diverse IPC experience across Melbourne.
Abstract:
Introduction
Victorian metropolitan Local Public Health Unit (LPHU) Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) Clinical Nurse Consultants (CNC) collaboratively host a monthly forum for Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF) IPC Leads, with a subsequent recap provided to facilities via email. We evaluated attendance at the forum, the utility and relevance of the information shared and identified the future needs of attendees.
Methods
An evaluation survey was emailed to invitees of the forum. Participants were asked to rate the standing agenda items discussed at each forum, as well as the forum recap. In addition, participants were asked to provide suggestions for future forum topics and their willingness to contact their LPHUs for IPC support.
Results
Fifty-six responses were received from 518 forum invitees. The average ratings for standing agenda items out of 5 were 4.8 for outbreaks updates, 4.6 for spotlight of the month and 4.7 for monthly recap. Ninety-eight percent of respondents reported they would contact their LPHU IPC consultant with questions outside the forum. Overall, qualitative responses reflected strong support for the forum and willingness for ongoing engagement with LPHU IPC leads.
Conclusion
The forum provides an avenue for LPHU IPC CNCs and RACF IPC leads to share information about local epidemiology and outbreaks, and to discuss solutions to common IPC challenges being experienced across the sector. Forums such as this play an important role in capacity building and collaboration across the RACF IPC sector.