Resource Library Definitions

VIPTA Education & Training Resource Library materials must meet all required inclusion criteria and at least one optional criterion.  The resource:

• (Required) Follows current evidence-based guidelines and/or aligns with standards set by state, federal and professional organizations
• (Required) Is one of these training types (or is similar): frequently asked questions, infographics, toolkits, assessment tools, audit tools, scenario/activity-based learning, presentations, webinars, courses, videos, and in-person events
• (Required) Originates from a credible source. Examples include websites, peer-reviewed journals, and IPC-related publications
• (Required) Is the most up-to-date version
• (Optional) Specific to Virginia regarding, geography, population, and/or practice
• (Optional) Exemplary (e.g., model best practice)
• (Optional) Innovative (e.g., creative, new methods, etc.)
• (Optional) Engaging (e.g., interactive, captivating, etc.)

VIPTA Education & Training Resource Library materials may not meet any of the following exclusion criteria:

• Contains guidance, policy, or standards from state, federal or national organizations without any additional education/training content.
• Materials that do not follow current evidence-based guidelines and/or align with standards set by state, federal and national organizations.
• Materials that are primarily designed to market products or services.
• Materials that violate copyright laws.

• Patients, Family, and/or Unpaid Caregivers: Persons who provide healthcare support in an unpaid capacity.
• Visitors: Persons visiting a person or place in a healthcare setting or who are under medical care.
• Non-Clinical / Indirect Healthcare Personnel: Personnel who are present in patient care areas, but do not provide treatment or other clinical care.  Personnel may interact with patients or provide patient-specific service when the patient is not present (e.g., maintenance, food services, environmental services, activities coordinators, administrative staff, laundry, security, volunteers, etc.)
• Clinical / Direct Healthcare Personnel: Personnel who provide patient services such has personal or clinical care that require interaction between the patient and the healthcare provider (e.g., therapy services, EMS, respiratory therapist, medical assistants, nursing assistants, nurses, advanced practice providers, etc.)
• Infection Preventionist: Healthcare professionals who ensure healthcare workers, patients, and visitors are following procedures to prevent and control infections.

• Acute Care Hospital: Hospital that provides inpatient medical care and other related services for surgery, acute medical conditions or injuries (usually for a short term illness or condition).
• Adult Day Care: Adult day care centers are regulated, non-residential facilities that provide a variety of health, social and related support services in a protective setting during part of the day to four or more aged, infirm or disabled adults who reside elsewhere.
• Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care: Medical services performed on an outpatient basis, without admission to a hospital or other facility (e.g., urgent care, primary care, pediatric care, etc.)
• Ambulatory Surgery: Place other than a certified hospital that does outpatient surgery. At an ambulatory (in and out) surgery center, you may stay for only a few hours or for one night.
• Assisted Living Facilities: Non-medical residential settings that provide or coordinate personal and health care services, 24-hour supervision, and assistance for the care of four or more adults who are aged, infirm or disabled. This care may be provided in one or more locations.
• Behavioral Health Facilities: Any facility that provides mental health services, support services for intellectual disabilities, or substance use disorder services (e.g., psychiatric facilities, group homes/behavioral health residential facility, substance abuse facility, etc.)
• Dental: Business establishment owned and/or run by a dental professional. It has several components and handles not only dental services and treatments, but also clerical and financial concerns.
• Department of Health: Department of Health is a government agency that regulates, coordinates, and oversees health care and human services. It may refer to the federal department of the United States, which is called the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or to the executive agency of the Philippine government, which is called the Department of Health (DOH). The Department of Health aims to protect the health and well-being of the people and provide essential services.
• Dialysis: Independent or hospital-based unit approved and licensed to furnish outpatient dialysis services (maintenance dialysis services, home dialysis training and support services or both) directly to end stage renal disease (ESRD) patient(s).
• Emergency Medical Services (EMS): A system that provides emergency medical care such as urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilization for serious illness and injuries; may act as a transport network between care facilities.
• Home Health: Care services provided in the home. To include limited part-time or intermittent skilled nursing care and home health aide services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, medical social services, durable medical equipment (such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen, and walkers), medical supplies, and other services.
• Hospice and Palliative Care: A special way of caring for people who are terminally ill, and for their family. This care includes physical care and counseling. Care can be provided in a healthcare facility or in the home.
• Mobile Clinic: Movable or detached self-contained health care unit within or from which direct health care services are provided to individuals.
• Nursing Home: Medical care facility providing long-term care.
• Pediatric/NICU: Specialty of care concerned with the physical, mental, and social health of children from birth to young adulthood.

• Air Quality: The degree to which the ambient air is pollution-free, assessed by measuring a number of indicators of pollution.
• Antimicrobial and Diagnostic Stewardship: Antimicrobial stewardship (AS) is the careful and responsible management of medications used to treat or prevent infections. It involves activities that promote and support best practice antimicrobial prescribing and use. Diagnostic stewardship refers to the appropriate use of laboratory testing to guide patient management, including treatment, in order to optimize clinical outcomes and limit the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
• Auditing/Observation/Monitoring/Assessment Tools: A resource designed to assist and/or guide infection prevention and control auditing, observation, monitoring, and/or assessment procedures (e.g., hand hygiene audit tracking tools, CDC infection control assessment tools by setting, etc.).
• Central Line: An intravascular catheter that terminates at or close to the heart, or in one of the great vessels AND is used for infusion, withdrawal of blood, or hemodynamic monitoring.
• Cleaning and Disinfection: Cleaning removes loose soils, preparing the surface or object to be disinfected. Disinfecting kills germs on the surface, preventing them from spreading.
• Construction: Building and remodeling in the context of infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities.
• Data Analysis: Process of systematically applying statistical and/or logical techniques to describe and illustrate, condense, and evaluate data.
• Emergency Preparedness & Operations: Preventive emergency measures and programs designed to protect the individual or community.
• Employee/Occupational Health: Field of healthcare that is concerned with the relation between work and health. It aims to protect and improve the health and welfare of employees in their respective workplaces.
• Enhanced Barrier Precautions: Enhanced Barrier Precautions expand the use of PPE beyond situations in which exposure to blood and body fluids is anticipated and refer to the use of gown and gloves during high-contact resident care activities that provide opportunities for transfer of MDROs to staff hands and clothing; e.g., dressing, bathing/showering, transferring, providing hygiene, changing linens, changing briefs or assisting with toileting, device care or use: central line, urinary catheter, feeding tube, tracheostomy/ventilator, and wound care.
• Fecal Management System: A soft catheter that is inserted into the rectum for fecal management to contain and divert fecal waste. It contains a low-pressure retention balloon at the distal end and a connector for attaching the collection bag at the other end.
• Hand Hygiene: Cleaning one’s hands primarily by either handwashing with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Hand hygiene is considered a primary measure for reducing the risk of transmitting infection among patients and health care personnel by substantially reducing potential pathogens on the hands.
• High Level Disinfection: Cleaning followed by high-level disinfection should eliminate enough pathogens to prevent transmission of infection, used for semi-critical items
• Injection Safety: Set of measures taken to perform injections in an optimally safe manner for patients, healthcare personnel, and others.
• Inter-/Intra-Facility Patient Transfer: The comprehensive infrastructure and process involved before, during, and after moving a patient from one location to another (within or between healthcare facilities).
• Laboratory Collection and Interpretation: Laboratory collection is the collection of specimens from hospital inpatients, outpatients, and physician office patients submitted for medical testing. Interpretation of a laboratory result requires that the result can be related to a relevant reference value.
• Ostomy: An artificial opening in an organ of the body, created during an operation such as a colostomy, ileostomy, or gastrostomy; a stoma.
• Outbreak Investigation: An outbreak investigation involves several overlapping epidemiologic, case, and contact investigations, with a surge in the need for public health resources.
• Patient and Family Engagement: A process in which patients, families, [and] their representatives [are] working in active partnership at various levels across the health care system, i.e. direct care, organizational design and governance, and policy making, to improve health and healthcare.
• Personal Protective Equipment: Equipment worn to minimize exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses (e.g., gloves, gowns, eye protection, etc.)
• Physical Environment/Environment of Care (EOC): Refers to any site where patients are treated, including inpatient and outpatient settings. The main objective of the EOC is to provide a safe, functional & effective environment for patients, staff members, and others.
• Quality Improvement: Consists of systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement in health care services and the health status of targeted patient groups.
• Regulatory Compliance: Set of rules organizations must follow to protect sensitive information and human safety. Any business that works with digital assets, consumer data, health regulations, employee safety, and private communications is subject to regulatory compliance. Organizations that fail to comply risks being fined for violations and could lose important vendor relationships.
• Risk Assessment: Systematic process of evaluating the potential risks that may be involved in a projected activity or undertaking.
• Standard Precautions: A set of infection control practices used to prevent transmission of diseases that can be acquired by contact with blood, body fluids, non-intact skin (including rashes), and mucous membranes. These measures are to be used when providing care to all individuals, whether or not they appear infectious or symptomatic.
• Sterile Processing: The cleaning, inspecting, disinfection and/or sterilization of medical devices used during a surgical procedure.
• Surveillance: Surveillance is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data that are essential to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice.
• Transmission-Based Precautions: The second tier of basic infection control and are to be used in addition to Standard Precautions for patients who may be infected or colonized with certain infectious agents for which additional precautions are needed to prevent infection transmission (e.g., contact precautions, droplet precautions, and airborne precautions).
• Urinary Catheter:
  • Indwelling Catheter: A drainage tube that is inserted into the urinary bladder through the urethra, left in place, and is connected to a drainage bag (i.e. leg bag).
  • External catheter: External devices to collect urine and an alternative to an indwelling catheter.
  • Intermittent: A process of draining urine from the bladder using straight in-and-out catheters. A urinary catheter does not remain in place.
• Vaccination: Treatment with a vaccine to produce immunity against a disease; inoculation.
• Ventilator: An appliance for artificial respiration; a respirator.
• Water Management: The control and movement of water resources to minimize damage to life and property and to maximize efficient beneficial use.
• Wound Care: Any technique that enhances the healing of skin abrasions, blisters, cracks, craters, infections, lacerations, necrosis, and/or ulcers.
• Wound VAC: A treatment that applies gentle suction to a wound to help it heal.

• Bloodborne Pathogens: Pathogenic microorganisms in human blood that can cause disease in humans (e.g., Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS).
• Carbapenem-Resistant Organisms (CRO): Organisms that are resistant to carbapenems. Carbapenems are a class of broad-spectrum antibiotics reserved to treat serious multidrug-resistant infections.
• Carbapenemase-Producing Organisms (CPO): Carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPO) are bacteria that are resistant to carbapenem antibiotics by producing an enzyme to break down the carbapenem antibiotics.
• Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI): A UTI where an indwelling urinary catheter was in place for more than two consecutive days in an inpatient location and other surveillance definition criteria are met.
• Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI): A CLABSI is a bloodstream infection that develops in a patient with a central line in place within the 48-hour period before onset of the bloodstream infection (and the infection is not linked to an infection from another part of the body)
• COVID-19: An infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
• Fungal Infections: Any disease that is caused by a fungus. A fungus that invades the tissue can cause disease that is confined to the skin, spreads into the tissue, bones, and organs, or affects the whole body (e.g., Ringworm).
• Gastrointestinal Infections: Viral, bacterial, fungal, or parasitic infections that cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract involving both the stomach and the small intestine.
• Influenza (Flu): A contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat, and lungs.
• Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms (MDRO): Microorganisms that are resistant to one or more classes of antimicrobial agents.
• Parasites: An organism that lives on or in a host organism and gets its food from or at the expense of its host (e.g., Bed Bugs, Scabies).
• Prions: Abnormal, pathogenic agents that are transmissible and are able to induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins called prion proteins that are found most abundantly in the brain.
• Respiratory Infections: Infections of parts of the body that are involved in breathing (such as the sinuses, throat, airways, or lungs).
• Select pathogens of public health concern: Selected pathogens that pose a risk to public health.
• Surgical Site Infections (SSI): An infection that occurs after surgery, in the part of the body where the surgery took place.
• Ventilator-associated events (VAE), including Pneumonia (VAP): A worsening of respiratory status or lung infection that develops in a person who is on a ventilator.

• Infection Prevention and Control Essentials for Nonclinical: A person new to or inexperienced in the field of infection prevention and control (IPC) and they do not have a clinical background on which to build. This could apply to the general public, patients, and healthcare workers without clinical experience such as environmental services workers and clerical staff.
  • • Audience examples: General Public, Patient, Family, Unpaid Caregiver, Nonclinical Healthcare Worker
• Infection Prevention and Control Foundational Level: A person who is just starting to participate in and gain knowledge through specialized infection prevention and control (IPC) training. Entry-level IPC training should focus on IPC fundamentals needed to understand and implement core concepts of IPC in their practice setting. This person may have no to little practice or fieldwork experience with IPC concepts.
  • • Audience examples: Nonclinical Healthcare Worker Leaders [Environmental Services Manager], Novice Infection Preventionist, Novice HAI/AR/IPC staff, Clinical Healthcare Worker seeking beginner IPC knowledge
• Infection Prevention and Control Intermediate Level: A person who has gained considerable knowledge through specialized infection prevention & control (IPC) training. Intermediate IPC training should focus on expanded IPC topics needed to start to lead and educate on IPC measures in their practice setting. This person may have minimal to moderate practice or fieldwork experience with IPC concepts.
  • • Audience examples: Advanced Beginner- Proficient Infection Preventionist, Advanced Beginner- Proficient HAI/AR/IPC staff, Novice - Proficient Healthcare/Public Health Epidemiologist, Infectious Disease /Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Pharmacist
• Infection Prevention & Control Advanced Level: A person who has gained extensive knowledge through specialized infection prevention & control (IPC) training and leads IPC initiatives and education programs within their practice setting. Advanced IPC training should focus on topics the individual needs to lead exemplary IPC initiatives and clearly communicate in their practice setting. This person must have considerable practice or fieldwork experience with IPC concepts.
  • • Audience examples: Expert Infection Preventionist, Expert Healthcare/ Public Health Epidemiologist, Expert HAI/AR/IPC staff, Infection Prevention Program Directors & Medical Directors, Expert Infectious Disease/Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Pharmacist

• Audio Only: Sound only; no video.
• Downloadable: Digital content (e.g., audio, video, print resource, etc.) that can be downloaded and used without an active internet connection.
• Fillable PDF: Interactive PDF document that allows users to enter answers on the form while viewing it in Adobe Acrobat or Reader.
• Graphics: Products of the graphics arts, especially commercial design or illustration.
• In-person Only: Any form of instructional interaction that occurs “in person” and in real time between teachers and students or among colleagues and peers.
• Print Resources: Materials that are available for the public to print (e.g., Word documents, PDFs).
• QR codes: Machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone.
• Slideshow: Slideshow or PowerPoint presentation complete with text and multimedia content.
• Video: Digital recording of an image or set of images (such as a movie or animation).
• Webinar (live): Live online educational presentation during which participating viewers can interact with the presenters by sharing/submitting questions and comments.
• Webinar (pre-recorded): Pre-recorded educational presentation which is played at a later time.

• Activity Included: An independent activity to build knowledge by reinforcing training principals (e.g., case study, scenario, tabletop, active participation in a demonstration, etc.)
• Facilitator Guide: Step-by-step instructions for facilitators to ensure consistency across training sessions.
• Interactive: Two-way flow of information between a computer/presenter and a user in order to obtain/share information
• Post-Training Support Materials: Materials that can be used to to test or refresh knowledge gained in a training session.
• Toolkit: Collection of adaptable documents to inform and facilitate implementation; can increase the use of evidence-based interventions. Most available toolkits provide resources about the intervention but lack guidance for adaptation to different contexts or strategies to support implementation.
• Train the Trainer: Framework for training potential instructors or subject matter experts to enable them to train other people in their organizations.

• CECH: Continuing Education Contact Hours (CECH).  One contact hour (CH) is defined as 60 minutes involved in an organized didactic or clinical learning activity.
• CEU: A continuing education credit (CEU) equals 10 contact hours of participation in an organized continuing education experience.
• CHES/MCHES: Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) is a certification given by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) to individuals who have a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in health education or significant coursework in this field.
• CME: Continuing Medical Education (CME) consists of educational activities which serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills, and professional performance and relationships that a physician uses to provide services for patients, the public, or the profession.
• CNE: Certified Nursing Education (CNE) refers to continuing education units that builds upon the educational and experiential bases of the Registered Nurse for the enhancement of practice, education, administration, research, or theory development, to the end of improving the health of the public and RNs' pursuit of their professional career goals
• CPE: Continuing Professional Education (CPE) refers to the points professionals receive for participating in specialized training. CPE credits are based on hours of study and count toward certification programs that enable professionals to maintain or update their credentials.

• Free: Without cost or payment
• Paid: Cost or payment associated with the resource/service

• Indian / Tribal Health Services: An agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives.
• Rural: Rural areas are diverse in geography, demographics, and cultural identity. In Virginia, we use the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) classification for metropolitan (non-rural), micropolitan (rural), and non-metropolitan (rural) counties.
• Underserved / Vulnerable Populations: Populations who face barriers in accessing resources and healthcare. Typically, due to geographic location, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, and income.
• Virginia: Referencing population(s) or geographic location(s) within the state of Virginia.

• English: Belonging or relating to, or spoken or written in, the English language.
• Spanish: Belonging or relating to, or spoken or written in, the Spanish language.

• American Sign Language (ASL): A visual-gesture language, having its own semantic and syntactic structure, used by deaf people in the U.S. and English-speaking parts of Canada.
• Audio Descriptions for Visuals: Audio Description involves the accessibility of the visual images of theater, television, movies, and other art forms for people who are blind, have low vision, or who are otherwise visually impaired.
• Closed Captioning (CC): Distributed with synchronized transcription or translation of speech and written descriptions of other relevant audio elements, as for the hard of hearing, that are visible only when the option to display them is selected, in program, film, or video.