Infection Prevention & Control [MT-05-EN]

Infection Prevention & Control [MT-05-EN]

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) remain among the most consequential preventable harms in clinical settings globally: the WHO estimates that at any given moment, more than 1.4 million patients worldwide are suffering from infections acquired in healthcare facilities, with rates in low- and middle-income countries running two to twenty times higher than in high-income settings. For facilities seeking or maintaining accreditation under the ASF Medical Tourism standard, rigorous infection prevention and control (IPC) is not an aspirational benchmark — it is a non-negotiable condition of recognition. In Georgia and across the South Caucasus, where hospital capacity has expanded rapidly under health system reform and medical tourism is an emergent economic sector, the gap between institutional growth and standardized IPC practice represents a measurable patient safety risk. This course addresses that gap directly, providing clinical teams with the structured knowledge and documentation competencies required to meet ASF IPC requirements and sustain compliance through audit cycles.

The course is grounded in the WHO’s core components framework for IPC programmes — the evidence-based architecture endorsed by the World Health Assembly in resolution WHA70.12 — alongside Joint Commission International (JCI) Prevention and Control of Infections standards and ISO 15189 requirements where they intersect with clinical laboratory safety. Teaching is organized around authentic facility scenarios, structured self-assessment tools, and document review exercises that replicate the conditions of an accreditation review, enabling participants to move directly from conceptual understanding to applied compliance practice. All clinical guidance reflects current WHO IPC guidelines, including the 2016 bundle-based recommendations on surgical site infection prevention and the 2019 guidelines on hand hygiene in health care.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Distinguish between the eight WHO core components of an effective IPC programme and evaluate the degree to which their own facility meets each component at the departmental level.
• Implement a hand hygiene monitoring protocol aligned with the WHO multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy, including direct observation audit methods and feedback reporting to clinical leadership.
• Apply standard and transmission-based precaution requirements — including contact, droplet, and airborne precaution tiers — to patient placement and personal protective equipment selection decisions in facility-specific contexts.
• Construct a facility IPC documentation package that satisfies ASF Medical Tourism accreditation requirements, including policy templates, surveillance logs, and corrective action records required for on-site review.
• Analyze HAI surveillance data using standard rate calculations to identify clusters, assess trends, and prioritize corrective interventions across clinical departments.
• Design a staff IPC education plan that meets accreditation-defined training frequency requirements and incorporates competency verification methods appropriate to role-specific infection risk levels.

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for infection control nurses, quality and patient safety officers, hospital administrators, and clinical department heads working in acute care, surgical, or ambulatory facilities that are pursuing or maintaining ASF Medical Tourism accreditation. It is equally relevant to facility compliance coordinators and nursing supervisors responsible for IPC policy implementation and staff education in Georgian and regional South Caucasus healthcare settings undergoing accreditation preparation. No prior formal IPC certification is required, though participants with frontline clinical experience will derive immediate practical benefit from the applied documentation components.

Course Structure

This self-paced online course is delivered through the GMJ Academy platform and requires approximately eight to ten hours of study, comprising instructional modules, guided document analysis exercises, and a summative assessment requiring a passing score of 75% or above. Participants who successfully complete the course and assessment receive a GMJ Academy certificate of completion carrying continuing professional development (CPD) credits recognized under the Georgian Medical and Nursing Council framework.