I was on the train last week on the way to work knowing that my first task of the day was to deliver a lecture on “Creative IPC Issues” to some student nurses. I reviewed the 60-strong slide deck that I’ve run through before and, honestly, my heart sank at the thought of running through them again. If that’s how I was feeling about the session, how could I possibly have delivered effective education? So, slightly impulsively, I threw out the slides and created some interactive scenarios to give an illustration of what it’s like to work in IPC (covering various microbial threats, risk identification and management, staffing challenges, relationship with partners, the regulatory environment, and quality improvement). Whilst I haven’t actually received formal feedback from the group, everybody seemed interested and engaged (in contrast to the previous 60-slide-death-by-powerpoint version!) – and if nothing else, I enjoyed it (which is an important part of delivering effective education.
Continue readingEducation
Journal Club Hacks
Later on this week, I’ll be doing a Journal Club on Journal Clubs (on Weds 21st at 1500 UK time – register here)! The aim of this Journal Club is to provide a bit of a ‘how-to’ guide on identifying and critically analysing good studies. Clearly, the definition of a “good” study will very much depend on your point of view and your interests. For example, a very well designed and conducted study in one journal may be of far less interest to you than a less well designed and / or conducted study on a more relevant topic. I picked up this BMJ Evidence Based Medicine article on Journal Clubs from 2017, which I’ve suggested as reading material before the Journal Club.
Continue readingAnnouncing: IPC Journal Club
I’m excited to let you know about a new (free!) virtual IPC Journal Club! The first event, hosted by IPC Partners, will be led by fellow Reflections blogger Phil and me, and take place next Wednesday 3rd July at 3-3.30 pm (UK time); you can register for the Journal Club here. The plan is for this to become a regular and interactive virtual forum to cover some breaking news in the world of IPC. The topic will be this study in the Journal of Hospital Infection (see Phil’s post on the study here), using whole genome sequencing to provide transmission insights into Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and evaluating the role of wastewater in transmission. Please do have a read of the paper before the session (or at least give the abstract a scan!) and come with your questions. Hope you will be able to join us next week.
Teaching how to use antibiotics
Antibiotics are probably the best invention since the discovery of sliced bread. They are very effective, very safe, very cheap and every physician is allowed to prescribe them. Trained as internist, ID specialist and later clinical microbiologist, I would never consider myself qualified for performing an appendectomy. Yet, there is not a single surgeon I know (and that may be biased) that considers him/herself not qualified to prescribe a carbapenem. When asked about the mechanism of action, side effects, costs and ecological risks, the brave face usually turns into the typical “so what” mode. Continue reading
Online HCAI / IPC / AMR / AMS / training resources
I am on the hunt for some free online training resources for HCAI / IPC / AMR / AMS / IPC, at a basic, intermediate, or advanced level. Here’s a summary of what I’ve unearthed so far.
On the effects of antibiotic stewardship: I met a analysis
Yet another meta-analysis telling us that we are doing something very valuable: antibiotic stewardship (AS). Nobody wants to (or should) question that good AS is important for our patients, just as hand hygiene, being sober when working and following the latest professional developments. How nice would it be if we could reliably quantify the effects of our good practice. One study is no study (say those that usually don’t perform studies), so the meta-analysis was invented. But what is told by a meta-analysis? Continue reading
Review of infectious disease blogs: survey
A guest post by Imperial College London researchers Rachael Troughton and Dr Gabriel Birgand (bios below):
Blogs have become integral part of academic life for many in the field of infectious diseases. A happy medium between Twitter and an academic journal, they allow fast and easy communication on a global scale between peers and across disciplines. But who are the bloggers behind the blogs? And who reads them?
Reflections on Infection Prevention and Control 