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.
Ready Before the Rush: Respiratory Disease Season Resources
Respiratory disease season is on the way. October is a great time to get prevention messages in front of staff, patients, and residents before respiratory illness activity picks up.
Check out the Guidance, Recommendations, & Regulatory Updates section for new respiratory disease season updates. Learn what’s new for sick or exposed healthcare workers and how to prevent the spread of respiratory diseases at your workplace.
Then, grab a few ready-to-use training tools to help your team put prevention into action.
What to Expect:
- VDH Respiratory Disease Resources: Find flyers, social media graphics, and healthy habits tools. You’ll also find vaccine information, flu materials, and more.
- CDC Respiratory Illness Season Toolkit: Find posters, handouts, social media graphics, and videos. Use them to help your team prepare for respiratory disease season.
- National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) Respiratory Disease Resources: Mix up your flu education with 30-second videos and graphics. You’ll also find the “Wild to Mild” campaign and an antiviral infographic.
Put it into Action:
- Start early. Add a reminder to your next staff huddle. Post one in a waiting area.
- Keep it quick. Show a short video at a meeting.
- Mix it up. Share a new message each week. Cover vaccines, healthy habits, symptoms, or treatment.
- Know what’s going around. Check Virginia respiratory disease data. Share key updates with your team.
Start now and keep it simple. You’ll have tools ready when you need them.
Target Audience: Foundational & Intermediate IPC Education Level
Carilion Clinic’s Internship Program Prepares the Next Generation of Infection Preventionists
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Carilion Clinic’s Infection Prevention and Control team is celebrating an innovative workforce development initiative: the Accelerated Internship Program for Infection Prevention and Control (IPC). Created to address the growing need for trained IPC professionals, the program offers aspiring infection preventionists and graduate students a structured, hands-on introduction to the field. The 10-week program includes 20 hours per week of core IPC learning. Interns build a strong foundation while applying concepts in real clinical settings. Topics include hand hygiene, standard and transmission-based precautions, healthcare-associated infection prevention, surveillance and reporting, regulatory readiness, environment of care, disinfection and sterilization, surgical services, microbiology, outbreak response, exposure management, and specialty care settings. |
The program’s practical design is one of its greatest strengths. Rather than learning only from reading, interns round with teams, observe surveillance processes, review dashboards, participate in environment of care activities, shadow sterile processing and laboratory workflows, explore outbreak response tools, and prepare department presentations. They also gain access to facility tools, policies, checklists, and national resources that support continued development. The internship is led by IP Savannah Butcher, MPH, who thoughtfully curates a meaningful learning experience. As she shares, “the most rewarding part of coordinating the internship program is mentoring students and helping them discover how impactful infection prevention is to patient safety and healthcare quality.” Cheers to Carilion Clinic’s IPC team for investing in future Infection Preventionists through a thoughtful model that combines mentorship, evidence-based practice, and real-world experience. Getting Started Tips
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