APIC announces infection control scholarship program for hospitals
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Key takeaways:
- The scholarship aims to improve infection prevention at critical access hospitals.
- It will be part of a larger health equity fund that will help underwrite infection and prevention in underserved communities.
ORLANDO — The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology announced the formation of a scholarship program to improve infection prevention and control in under-resourced hospitals.
The Critical Access Hospital Scholarship program, which will be the initial focus of a new Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) Health Equity Fund, is a 3-year program that aims to provide funds, services and educational content for nine critical access hospitals, APIC announced at its annual conference.
“We have a big problem with health inequity in the United States,” APIC president Patricia Jackson, RN, MA, BSN, CIC, FAPIC, director of infection prevention at White Rock Medical Center in Dallas, said during a press conference here, explaining that isolated rural areas do not have equal access to health care.
“The idea is that by creating this fund and equipping infection preventionists at these critical access hospitals ... we are secondarily going to improve health equity in their communities,” Jackson said.
The scholarship program, a joint effort between APIC, APIC Consulting Services and the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, will be awarded to three critical access facilities per year for 3 years, with packages that include consulting services; access to APIC publications, prep courses and networking resources; and APIC memberships, annual conference registrations and travel to the conference. The value of each scholarship is just over $50,000.
The main criteria for facilities applying for scholarships is designation by state government as a clinical access hospital, which generally includes facilities in rural areas or that are 35 miles or more from the nearest hospital, according to CMS.
By December 2026, APIC expects nine facilities to have completed its program. The application period will be open from late August through Sept. 30, with awardees notified sometime in October, according to APIC.
APIC CEO Devin Jopp, EdD, MS, noted that about 40% of infection control doctors and administrators are expected to retire in the next 10 years and “frankly, that’s what keeps us up at night — just trying to fill that gap.”
APIC also announced plans to roll out a “staffing calculator” aimed at helping health facilities access how many infection preventionists they need on staff, whether the facility is a hospital, long-term care or nursing home facility.
“We’re doing a lot of things to work on that pipeline [of infection preventionists] by equipping them,” Jackson said. “I think, sometimes, these IPs at critical access hospitals, they don’t necessarily have a lot of longevity because they have multiple roles and there’s nobody to train them. [Maybe] we’ll get more longevity out of these people.”
References:
- CMS. Critical access hospitals. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/CertificationandComplianc/CAHs. Published Dec. 1, 2021. Accessed June 27, 2023
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