The Yale School of Nursing and the New York Academy of Medicine have formed a coalition to address infection prevention in long-term care facilities worldwide. As part of the initiative, they are inviting industry leaders to participate in a December summit.
The coalition aims to identify gaps and resource needs for preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections in the areas of staffing, education, organizational culture, equipment and more. Participants will use summit findings to develop a toolkit led by Yale nursing scientists. The toolkit will include simulation exercises, data visualization, and other instructional and learning modules, according to NYAM.
“Our goal and top priority in this project is to be able to provide very concrete safety tools that will keep residents and staff safe from contracting COVID-19,” said Carmen Portillo, Ph.D., RN, executive deputy dean and a professor at the Yale School of Nursing. “Families with loved ones residing in nursing homes across the globe depend on staff in these facilities to keep their family members safe. We need to do better.”
The summit is geared to long-term care professionals such as administrators, clinicians, regulators, researchers, and policymakers in the United States and Australia, Scotland and Thailand. Participants from North America may attend either one of two summit events, to be held on Dec. 2 and Dec. 8.
The goals of the discussion are:
- to critically examine evidence-based practice guidelines for infection prevention and control in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities,
- to understand key barriers to implementing these best practices, and
- to propose sustainable regional and global solutions.
The partnership is supported by Saraya Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of hygiene and healthcare products.
