VIPTA is a statewide infection prevention and control education collaborative, led by the Virginia Healthcare-Associated Infections Advisory Group. Through partnership, VIPTA curates IPC resources for Virginia’s healthcare, congregate care, and public health settings.
Wrap It Up: Infection Prevention Wound Care Resources
We’ve done the wrapping and you get to open the educational package! Whether you’re refreshing staff education, strengthening your wound care program, or looking for practical teaching tools, these free resources are ready to help you put infection prevention into practice.
What to Expect:
Wound Care Educational Handout: A colorful, easy-to-follow visual resource that highlights key infection prevention practices before, during, and after wound care.
TRAIN Virginia Wound Care Series: Start with “VDH: Wound Care Infection Risks and Your Infection Prevention Program” (Course ID 1127475) and continue through the full series exploring infection prevention principles, common infection transmission risks, and evidence-based practices through interactive scenarios and knowledge checks.
VDH Wound Care Infection Prevention and Control Guidance & Observation Tool: A ready-to-use observation checklist that you can use for audits, competency validation, and helps standardize wound care practices across your facility.
How to use it:
- Observe before you educate. Use the observation tool to identify your team’s strengths and opportunities, then tailor education to the practices you actually see instead of guessing where knowledge gaps exist.
- Make observations less intimidating. Use the checklist as a coaching tool rather than an audit, creating opportunities for real-time feedback and discussion.
- Who else should be trained? Anyone who assists during wound care, including nursing assistants and other healthcare personnel who provide an extra set of hands, should understand infection prevention practices that help protect the patient.
Target Audience: Foundational & Intermediate IPC Education Level
Making Infection Prevention Fun: A Creative Skills Fair
Infection prevention is a critical topic in healthcare, but engaging staff in learning can often be challenging. Jennifer Kemp, RN, CRRN, CBIS, CIC, Infection Preventionist at Sheltering Arms Institute, a nationally ranked physical rehabilitation provider located in Richmond, Virginia, decided to break away from the traditional lecture style and bring a new level of energy and interaction to infection prevention education. Her solution? A Jeopardy-style game combined with hands-on demonstrations, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Turning Learning into a Game: With only a short time to capture attention and convey essential information, Jennifer opted for a format that encouraged participation and fun. The Jeopardy game included categories such as:
- Isolation Signage and Precautions
- Cleaning and Disinfection
- Odds and Ends
- Germ Matching
This interactive approach kept participants engaged while reinforcing key infection prevention concepts.
Hands-On Demonstrations: To further enhance learning, Jennifer introduced practical demonstrations that allowed participants to apply their knowledge. Some highlights included:
- Hand Hygiene with a Twist: Participants put on gloves, applied paint, closed their eyes, and sang “Happy Birthday” while performing their usual hand hygiene. The paint revealed commonly missed areas like between the fingers, around nails, and at the wrist driving home the importance of thorough technique.
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Donning and Doffing Challenge: Teams competed to correctly put on and remove PPE. This exercise exposed common errors such as incorrect sequencing and failure to tie gowns, emphasizing why attention to detail matters for safety.
- Cleaning and Disinfection Drill: Participants cleaned shared medical equipment like vital signs monitors, learning why one wipe is not enough. This activity underscored the importance of using multiple wipes for different parts of the equipment to ensure complete disinfection.
- Germ-to-Isolation Matching: Teams matched pathogens (e.g., MRSA, C. difficile, COVID-19) with the appropriate PPE and cleaning products. This reinforced understanding of isolation precautions and environmental cleaning requirements.
Why It Worked: The interactive format fostered teamwork, critical thinking, and practical application. Even seasoned nurses benefited by revisiting proper protocols and correcting habits that had drifted from best practice. Jennifer’s creative approach was so effective that participants called her booth the best skills fair of the year.
Jennifer’s innovative approach demonstrates that infection prevention education can be both fun and effective.
