Meet the people who keep viruses & bacteria at bay in our health facilities

I joined IPAC in fall 2020. IH provided training education for a group of us, and here I am. The role seemed different and interesting and I like challenges. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I’m involved in many different tasks, from surveillance with Medical Microbiology and Epidemiology teams, to assisting with and reporting on disease outbreaks, to supporting and educating frontline staff. My job requires fostering relationships between IPAC and Interior Health leadership, support staff such as Environmental Services and Facilities and Maintenance Services, as well as with outside contractors, to ensure operations continue with patient safety always in mind and Canadian standards are met.

It’s like doing detective work. We work to reduce health care acquired infections (HAI) through education, trace HAIs in an effort to reduce spread, and audit facilities – which is called practice assessment – and keep patients and residents safe from infection within our facilities.

We are sometimes perceived as the police, but in fact we are here to support and help people! We fix things so everybody is safe.

Patience, self-driven, organized. You have to be able look at things with a macro lens, but also be able to prioritize. You also need an accredited course approved by Infection Prevention and Control Canada.

I like to say no one comes to work or into our facilities wanting to get sick. A lot of what infection preventionists say may seem unrealistic, but consider this: you probably didn’t just have a kidney transplant, or heart surgery.

A construction worker could open a ceiling tile 1,000 times and nobody would get sick, but all it takes is once, so that's the challenge.

I was moving to Kelowna and the job kind of fell into my lap – it was a happy accident. I’ve loved it since! I started mid-pandemic, and coming from another health authority, it was an interesting experience comparing the two.

Cool, calm, collected. It helps to have a good base in nursing and on-site experience for this role – but it’s a huge change of pace. You don’t know what’s going to come in your inbox, or who will call you with an urgent situation.

We do a through investigation into each case. Lab tests are used to confirm if it’s a true case of norovirus. We put together a multi-disciplinary team, including support services, allied health and clinical leadership to ensure clear and consistent communication – so all IPAC measures are applied and all members of the team are aware of how it impacts their services.

It’s like being a detective, trying to find commonalities between cases, looking at admissions, discharges and movement of patients, visitors and residents. It gets very intricate and interesting.

I enjoy the daily challenges of IPAC, such as working on surveillance of health care associated infections (e.g., surgical site infections and clostridioides difficile infections), and better understanding construction in health care and how integral IPAC is in the process.

The biggest thing so far is the teamwork in the IPAC program. It’s been great to see our colleagues come together and work so well together.

Proper hand hygiene is one of the biggest things we can do to prevent the spread of germs!

In the intensive care unit, I met a colleague who was doing infection prevention and control. I was really interested in the infection prevention part of it.n

I do surveillance every single day, whether it’s a person with an infectious disease, or a potential infection. It’s like the TV show CSI: you have this unknown, and you need to prevent the pathogen from going further, so you work with a team of professionals to diagnose the unknown, apply control measures, and reassess the results.

I see the great results from best practices through education and staff support as we work together to create a positive culture and quality care. I love being able to educate staff, physicians, x-ray technicians, volunteers – anyone who’s working in our facility – on hand hygiene or how to put on and take off your personal protective equipment (PPE).

My job in the intensive care unit required an immediate response. My current role is all about gathering information and data, and using IPAC standards to help create change, improve patient quality care, and support staff and leadership with education on best practices.

We’re involved in construction projects! We sign a lot of permits and ensure new construction meets infection prevention and control standards, for example new flooring or sinks.