iprn

At my previous acute care facility, I was hourly - 8 hours/day, 40 hours, anything over was considered overtime. At my current acute care facility, I'm salaried - the expectation is a 40 hour week, 8 hour/day but I'm putting in probably 45-50 hour week depending on my workload. My start-end time is pretty flexible as long as there is coverage in the office during weekday office hours. I pretty much keep a 8-5 schedule M-F. I've also interviewed at a facility that does 4-10 (4 shifts per week/ 10 hours a day) but I think that's more rare. The only times where I've ever worked weekends/holidays was because I wanted to flex a day off in the week or something big was happening in the hospital (outbreak, Ebola, etc...). Here's a good review of what I do: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/hai/Documents/5Role_of_IP_RevisedFinal5.11.15.pdf Tough to describe a typical day because it is always changing depending on what situations arise. We're huge problem solvers and a consultative/educational resource at the facility on all things infection control-related. I think the skill set of working as a county communicable disease nurse is very transferable to the work of a hospital IP. You don't need to be a RN to do the job, but the license helps because you are working with so many health care professionals. At the hospital, we are considered the "public health" of the hospital since we do surveillance for the entire facility in order to track trends/identify infections and collaborate with the responsible department to formulate action plans to tackle issues that arise. IMO though, the hospital environment is pretty stressful since we are held accountable for a lot of things but not really enough hands to do it all.

Hey jaysie1! Thanks for the update!! I didn't get a chance to see this post until now so I hope your interview went well. It is awesome you took the initiative to sign up for the UCSD class - hopefully you had a chance to bring it up at your interview! Your strength IS your clinical experience! Actually, your IP department size sounds about right...and if it is a large teaching hospital, they are probably quite understaffed (my dept is only 2 IP + 1 manager + we have data/admin support. I did interview at a place that had 6 IPs + 1 director...which is pretty rare, I think). Ideally, it should be 1 IP per 100 or so beds (not even factoring in acuity mix (ICU beds), whether the hospital is a trauma center/teaching facility, any ambulatory responsibilities, etc...) but budgetary-wise, it is challenging to staff to those levels. Anyways, hoping to hear more good news from you! Happy Nurse's week!

Yup, I totally second JordiesMom's advice! I would have a conversation with the manager/director of the IP department to see how open they are in potentially taking on someone new to infection control (or just test the waters with the current IP staff). You have the added advantage of already knowing your hospital and having working relationships with the staff present. Another good advocate for you would be your current department manager/supervisor (if you are open into letting them know and they are okay with you wanting to move into another specialty). I can see it being difficult to move within hospital departments if your current manager isn't supportive of your move (hard to keep an internal transfer hush hush and the infection control manager/director usually has some sort of working relationship with all nursing managers in a hospital). Your strength would be your bedside experience and even though you don't have a lot of infection prevention experience, I think you already have a good head start as your dept's IP liaison and spearheading a few projects! It mostly gives you an opportunity to be on their radar so someone can vouch for you if your name comes up as a potential candidate. Another thing I would look at is the experience mix in your current IP department. If the department has mostly newbies, they may not be interested in taking on someone new. If the department has a good experience mix (some with more years vs. others) or mostly experienced folks, then you may have a better opportunity at joining the team. The APIC classes are pretty pricey, so I think it is a bit of an investment without a guarantee of a return at this moment. I think most people take them when they are already in the field and either their employer is paying for it or they are looking to boost up their fundamentals/skill set while they are on the job (and potentially use that as leverage to move to another job). I've never been in a hiring position so I wouldn't know how much influence taking an APIC class has on the overall decision making process with IP experience or lack thereof factored in.

Hi JordiesMom! How are you liking the field so far?? I think if you are taking the APIC fundamentals class (EPI101), you don't need the UCSD Extension class. I only took it because my current hospital at the time didn't have the budget to send me to EPI101 and I wanted to take a cheaper fundamentals course to beef up my infection prevention baseline knowledge. My current facility will be sending me to EPI201 this Fall! Pretty excited to check out Austin and learn! For more education, I would check out your local APIC chapters - they usually do an educational component during their meetings (where you can earn CEUs) and some chapters put on local conferences that are much cheaper than the National APIC conference. If you do get the opportunity to go to the national APIC conference though, I highly recommend it. I went last year and it was so much fun and educational. Networking is also a huge part of our profession, so definitely get involved in your local APIC chapter if you get the opportunity!

Hi Jaysie1! I currently work as an infection preventionist (a.k.a. infection control nurse). In order to be eligible to sit for the CIC exam, you have to currently work in the infection prevention field. Here's a link to test eligibility: New 2015 Eligibility Requirements | CBIC, Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. I would check out APIC.org for more info about our profession. That's our profession organization and they offer training courses that employers sometimes prefer in their job listing. I don't know too much about American Sentinel's program so I can't comment on that. For a cheaper option, I did a UCSD extension fully online class (Fundamentals of Infection Prevention/Clinical Epi) Fundamentals of Infection Prevention/Clinical Epidemiology - UC San Diego Extension However, I did that class when I was already hired into the field and wanted to get a foundations course in. Your MSN won't hinder you in the hiring process (and I don't think you need a MPH unless you want it for personal growth) but I think the lack of infection control experience is going to make it a bit more challenging to break into the field. I would look into joining your current hospital's Infection Prevention Committee, just to gain insight on the current IP issues in your facility. At my previous facility, my dept worked with an ICU nurse on our CLABSI (Central line associated blood stream infection) team and she has been invaluable in narrowing the front-line issues that can cause CLABSIs. There are usually various hospital Performance Improvement committees related to IP issues (CAUTI, hand hygiene, C diff, etc...) and having front line staff provide expertise and guidance can make a real difference in tackling the issues. It'll also help you get to know your infection control folks, just in case they have an opening in their department. That seems to be the most common story I hear from my colleagues: they were in some other type of nursing position and then an opportunity opened up in their current hospital's infection prevention dept and that's how they started their career in infection prevention. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions!

Hi! Long shot but this comment is for "JordiesMomRN". I got your PM about the CIC exam but was unable to send you a PM because I haven't hit the minimum posts requirement to send a PM. I took the CIC exam in October and passed. I didn't think it was super hard, but just the sheer amount of information that was needed to be front-loaded during the exam was challenging. I studied on and off for about 2-3 months (not seriously) and then buckled down and focused the month before the test (studying every weekend). You mentioned you had been on the job for 3 weeks so I would just focus on learning the basics. I didn't seriously start thinking about taking the exam until about a year into the job. By then, I felt comfortable in certain areas and weak in others and just targeted my studying in the weak areas. I would recommend getting involved with your local APIC chapter (so you can get study buddies when you are ready) and if there is downtime at work, thumb through the APIC text on things you want to learn more about. Welcome to the world of IP! It is a great field and no two days are ever the same. Feel free to touch base if you have any additional questions (until I can boost up my posts count for the PM thing!). (side comment for any moderators: I had originally typed a lengthy reply to the PM because the reply box was present when I clicked straight to the message from my dashboard but was denied after hitting sent. Lost my entire reply. There should probably be a warning BEFORE or not even provide that as an option for those clicking straight to the message or at least let us save it as a draft!)

Hi! I currently work as an Infection Preventionist (IP) at an acute care hospital and can help answer some of your questions. The world of Infection Prevention is diverse and ever-changing. 3 things that really make an IP successful is being a great communicator (you work with a lot of different people in different fields), a great educator (every moment is a teaching opportunity when you are consulting with staff on infection prevention issues) and being a great problem solver (no 2 day is the same and people will come to you with different problems, some not even related to Infection Prevention). I would really play up those attributes in your interview - providing examples from your current nursing experience. Think about all the opportunities you've had on the floor as a nurse and how it relates to infection prevention. Are you a part of any performance improvement teams on issues related to IP? Such as CLABSI, CAUTI, C.diff, Hand hygiene, etc...? That would really help your interview because it shows that you've expressed interest in helping improve those processes for your facility. Look up APIC and whether there is a local chapter in your area. APIC is our professional organization and provides great education & networking opportunities. It's impossible to know everything in infection prevention, so it is important to know your resources and if you don't have an answer, knowing where to find it. Mentioning that you plan on joining APIC (which I hope you do!) may help during your interview. Also, it helps to be great with computers (there's a lot of data/reporting requirements we are responsible for) and to have great attention to detail. We are responsible for surveillance house-wide and we abide by case definitions set by NHSN/CDC to identify hospital associated infections. I work at a pretty resource challenged hospital so some days, it can get really frustrating. Everyone is constantly swamped so you really have to advocate on behalf of infection prevention to get things done. Overall though, I really love my job because you get the opportunity to impact an entire population. I really enjoy looking at processes and working with others to make things more efficient and safer for our patients. Best of luck on your interview and hopefully this was helpful. Feel free to ask more questions!

Thanks for the info, Career#24me! Similar to all the NCLEX help threads, if it is alright, I was wondering if you could share what are the "must-knows" for the test. I don't really know anyone who has recently took the exam (people I know who are CIC certified have been taking the SARE for re-certification). There really isn't too much guidance on how to approach this test (besides telling us to READ EVERYTHING in the APIC text/recommended reference material). I've been studying from the APIC CIC review book - I've borrowed the 4th ed and will probably purchase the 5th ed when it comes out in late July. I took the CBIC sponsored review course in June at the APIC convention on prepping for the CIC and it was not helpful at all.... Studying while working full time has been quite the challenge!

Hi Career#24me, Congrats on passing! I'm planning to take the CIC exam in the next 2 months and was wondering if you felt that the practice questions from the APIC Competency Review Guide were similar to the actual test itself. How long did you study before taking the test and how long have you worked in the field? Thanks in advance!

No problem. This site has been great for me and I'm happy to help. As for getting hired as an IP at my facility, my situation was definitely the exception, not the rule. While studying for the NCLEX, I was volunteering at the IP department and coincidentally, after I passed, the current IP decided to move to another hospital. I got along really well with the manager and expressed interest in the role. I got extremely, extremely lucky. I graduated with an ADN with a previous B.S. in Biology. No related certifications, training or degree but I conveyed that I'm interested in pursuing a Master's either in Nursing or Public Health (currently leaning towards PH) and also being certified in Infection Control (CIC) was on the top of my list (which I'm hoping to accomplish this year). I'm not 100% sure what the job description stated but I know it was written so that I had at least the minimum required qualifications (RN license, bachelor's degree in nursing or related field, certification preferred or within 2 years of hire). The size of my facility has over 300 beds and is a trauma 2 center in CA. I'm sure every acute care facility has an IP committee because I believe it is a requirement of Joint Commission accreditation. If not, I would look into your Quality Management/Assurance department. Our IP department is under QM. There has to be at least one Infection Prevention Practitioner in your facility (or infection control practitioner) so I would hit them up for more info. As for APIC, my dues are $185 + $15 for local chapter so also $200. Yes, you will need to join APIC to become a member of the local chapter but I know people just show up as "guests" to my local meetings. Everyone is really friendly. Here's a link to all the local chapters:APIC | Chapter Map For the online extension class, you don't have to turn in anything. You just enroll during the appropriate time frame. You also get 12 CEUs for the class. There is 1 multiple choice final and you can choose whether you want a letter grade or pass/no pass. Pretty informal and easy. APIC's EPI 101 & 102 is considered to be the "gold standard" in terms of the IP world for fundamentals classes. Since I'm not in a hiring position, I don't know how much weight EPI would be versus other fundamentals classes. Maybe someone else with more experience in the IP world can chime in on that. Depending on what area you are in, I would look to see if your state's Dept of Public Health have their own HAI Liasion program. Our HAI liasions hosts 2 day in person trainings on the Basics of IP (one in SoCal and one in NorCal) for free. Here's CA's website: Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) Program The IP world is insanely large and vast and we pretty much have our toes in everything at the hospital (since everything is and can be an infection prevention/patient safety issue). It can be incredibly frustrating at times but this has been such a great learning experience for me and I love my job!

Long time lurker, created an account to see if I can provide some insight. Not sure how I can help in terms of landing the job because I got really lucky as a new grad. I've been working in my current position since May 2013. Since your background is in ICU, I think that is very helpful because those patients are the most critical and has an increase potential of picking up Healthcare associated infections (HAIs). I noticed that you mentioned you are a traveler? I would look into joining your current hospital's Infection Prevention Committee, just to gain insight on the current IP issues in your facility. We currently have an ICU nurse on our CLABSI (Central line associated blood stream infection) team and she has been invaluable in narrowing the front-line issues that can cause CLABSIs. There are usually various hospital Performance Improvement committees related to IP issues (CAUTI, hand hygiene, C diff, etc...) and having front line staff provide expertise and guidance can make a real difference in tackling the issues. Look and see if there is a local APIC chapter in your area. It will be great for networking and also most meetings have an educational component that can provide CEUs on IP related topics. I also thought that the APIC in person classes (EPI 101 & EPI 102) were on the more expensive side so I looked for some online fundamentals class to take. Here's one that I liked that wasn't too expensive: Fundamentals of Infection Prevention/Clinical Epidemiology - UC San Diego Extension - offered by UCSD Extension, fully online (Fundamentals of Infection Prevention/Clinical Epi) Hopefully this is helpful and good luck!