Fact Sheets

CMS & CDC Offer a specialized, online Infection Prevention and Control Training For Nursing Home Staff in the Long-Term Care Setting

CMS & CDC Offer a specialized, online Infection Prevention and Control Training for Nursing Home Staff in the Long-Term Care Setting

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing a free on-line training course in infection prevention and control for nursing home staff in the long-term care setting developed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

The course information covers core activities for an infection prevention and control program, with a detailed explanation of recommended practices to prevent pathogen transmission and reduce healthcare-associated infections and antibiotic resistance in nursing homes. 

Course overview and materials are available on the CDC's TRAIN website (https://www.train.org/cdctrain/training_plan/3814). 

The infection prevention and control course is covered in 23 modules and sub-modules, estimated at 19 hours to complete. It includes:

• User-friendly, informative and educational course content; 
• Helpful resources (e.g., training tools, checklists, signs, and policy & procedure templates);
• Modules that can be completed at any time, in any order, and over multiple sessions, depending on the learner’s schedule; and 
• Continuing education credits and a certificate of completion are available for those who complete all modules and pass a post-course exam.

Additional Background:
Healthcare-associated infections can result in considerable harm or death for residents in long-term care facilities and increased costs for the healthcare system. Infection control is one of the most commonly cited quality deficiencies in nursing homes. Growing concerns over infection control issues in facilities led to the phased-in, revised requirements for participation. 

Effective November 2016, the Requirements for Participation for Nursing Homes were comprehensively reformed for the first time since 1989 to reflect the substantial advances that have been made over the years in the theory and practice of care delivery and safety.   CMS implemented the revised requirements using a phased approach. The first phase required specific components of an effective infection prevention and control program and the second phase, an antibiotic stewardship program to combat the growing concern of multi-drug resistant organisms.  The release of this training course and its modules are designed to help facilities provide staff with the required specialized infection prevention and control training as it relates to the phased implementation of the Requirements for Participation for Nursing Homes. 

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