Virginia Infection Prevention & Control Training Alliance (VIPTA)

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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.

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Infection Prevention and Control Training Power Tools logo

Your Infection Prevention Training Toolbox is Ready to Go

Need a quick win for your next training? These VDH Infection Prevention Power Tools are ready when you are. Use them for education days, World Hand Hygiene Day (May 5th), or quick huddles, with practical, engaging activities you can grab and go to make infection prevention stick.

What to Expect

  • Training Step-by-Step Guides: Ready-to-use guides that walk you through delivering engaging IP trainings from start to finish. Each includes clear instructions, materials, and tips so you can confidently lead activities like Caught Red-Handed, PPE Fashion Show, Glowing IP Education, and Creating an Educational Game.
  • Hands-On Learning: Interactive activities designed to get staff thinking, talking, and applying infection prevention in real time. Use tools like Rank the Risk, IP Sketch Pad, and puzzles to spark discussion, reinforce key concepts, and make learning stick.

How to use it:

  • Kick off World Hand Hygiene Day: Run Caught Red-Handed during shift change to quickly show missed spots and reinforce good hand hygiene technique.
  • Annual education days: Use PPE Fashion Show to train a large group in a fun engaging way while using a limited number of PPE supplies.
  • Downtime: Set up puzzles and coloring pages as a low-pressure way to reinforce key concepts like isolation precautions or transmission routes.

Target Audience: Essential IPC Education Level

Guidance, Recommendations, & Regulatory Updates

VIPTA members track guidance and regulation resources to share source documents that guide infection prevention and control practices for public health staff and clinical and non-clinical healthcare personnel.

The date of the regulation or guidance update is included in each post.  Please check linked content to be sure it is the most up to date and recommended practice.

CDC: Conjunctivitis (09/11/2026)
CDC
Any Practice Setting
The CDC recommends excluding healthcare personnel with suspected or confirmed infectious conjunctivitis, including epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC), from work for the duration of their symptoms. These recommendations emphasize strict hand hygiene, appropriate cleaning and disinfection of surfaces and shared medical equipment, and prompt identification and management of cases to prevent transmission and healthcare-associated outbreaks.
CDC: Viral Respiratory Infections (09/11/2026)
CDC
Any Practice Setting
The CDC provides updated recommendations for managing healthcare personnel exposed to or infected with viral respiratory infections, including work restrictions, symptom monitoring, and source control. Asymptomatic exposed personnel may continue working with source control through at least five days after their last exposure, while infected personnel should be excluded from work for at least three days and meet additional symptom-based return-to-work criteria, followed by source control through at least day seven.
CDC: Preventing Respiratory Infections in the Workplace (08/28/2026)
CDC
Any Practice Setting
The CDC provides recommendations to help employers prevent and respond to respiratory infections in the workplace through improved ventilation, engineering controls, environmental cleaning and disinfection, and policies that encourage sick employees to stay home.  These recommendations also emphasize using respiratory illness surveillance data to inform workplace prevention strategies, including masking and remote work, to reduce transmission and protect employee health.

Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA)

SHEA

Infection Prevention and Control of Candida auris in Pediatric Settings (6/23/2026) The guidance recommends identifying at-risk pediatric patients through targeted screening, using appropriate isolation and room-placement precautions, and coordinating closely with infection prevention and public health partners when Candida auris is suspected or confirmed. It also emphasizes prevention through meticulous hand hygiene, effective environmental cleaning and disinfection, and careful...

Spotlight on Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital

This month, we’re highlighting Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk, VA—a 296‑bed facility offering multiple levels of care, including skilled nursing rehabilitation, long‑term care, an adult ventilator unit, and a 25‑bed pediatric unit caring for medically complex children who often require ventilators, tracheostomies, feeding tubes, and continuous monitoring. 

When a pediatric patient transferred to an acute‑care hospital for a respiratory infection and grew carbapenem‑resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in Spring of 2025, Lake Taylor quickly identified a second child in their own facility with the same organism. In response, the team launched unit‑wide point prevalence testing every two weeks. Over seven rounds, six asymptomatic children tested positive. All were promptly cohorted to reduce transmission risk.

The facility conducted a thorough review of hand hygiene practices, signage, and supply placement. They introduced ATP testing to validate environmental cleaning and switched to a disinfectant with a shorter contact time to improve compliance. According to Infection Preventionist, Carol Evans and VP of Patient Services, Karen Wilhelm, these changes strengthened staff confidence and consistency.

Collaboration with the Virginia Department of Health and the CDC was central to their success. Leadership remained deeply engaged, implementing recommendations swiftly. The team at Lake Taylor spoke highly of the mentorship they received from VDH throughout the process, and Devonne Winston from VDH, who nominated the Lake Taylor team for this month’s Cheers for Peers, says “They led by example” of the leadership team.

On October 17, Lake Taylor hosted a highly successful education event with 106 participants from across the facility, recognizing that this education was important in the adult units as well. Staff practiced hand hygiene using GloGerm, completed PPE donning and doffing demonstrations, learned about multiple MDROs, and participated in an environmental cleaning station.

Kudos to the Lake Taylor team for their rapid, coordinated response and commitment to protecting patients throughout the facility.

✨Check out the McKnight Prize for Healthcare Outbreak Heroes – a great way to cheer on a peer nationally!

IPC Education & Training Library

Search the VIPTA library of curated infection prevention and control (IPC) education and training resources. The IPC Education & Training Resource Library includes state and national resources related to healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance and/or IPC. Visit the VIPTA FAQ page to learn more about VIPTA library content.

 

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