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Gippsland Region Infection Control Group

The Gippsland group consists of practitioners from 11 DHS health services and one private hospital, in south-east Victoria, or the Gippsland region. The services range in size from very small rural facilities to multi-campus regional centres.

They are:-

• Orbost Regional Health (External link)
• Omeo Hospital
• Bairnsdale Regional Health Service (External link)
• Central Gippsland Health Service - based in Sale
• Latrobe Regional Hospital - Traralgon (External link)
• Yarram and District Health Service (External link)
• South Gippsland Hospital - Foster
• Gippsland Southern Health Service - Leongatha and Korumburra
• Wonthaggi Hospital
• Koo-Wee-Rup Hospital
• West Gippsland Health-care Group - Warragul (External link)
• Maryvale Private Hospital

The Infection Control practitioner at each of these facilities is responsible for the management of an infection control program within the facility and to a certain extent within the community. The programs address the issues of prevention of infection and the management of infections and infectious diseases with relation to healthcare facilities. Infection control is the responsibility of all hospital departments including clinical areas, engineering, food services and environmental services and the infection control practitioner co-ordinates management of infection issues within all these departments.
Although practitioners are based in acute services, they have responsibility for aged care services and community services in many of the organisations.

Responsibilities include:

• Surveillance of hospital acquired infections
• Outbreak investigation - detect causes and formulate solutions
• Education of staff in prevention of infection and management of infections and infectious diseases
• Consultation - provide expert advice to hospital departm March 29, 2006 maintain documentation to investigate and record infection control data and information
• Exposure Follow Up - provide information and access to appropriate services for staff who experience exposure to blood-borne infections
• Quality Assessment/ Investigational Studies - monitoring, surveys and audits to evaluate the procedures within the organisation. Ensure adherence to guidelines, standards etc.
• Professional Development - maintain personal continual formal and informal education process.

The regional structure consists of the practitioners group that reports to an Advisory Group consisting of practitioners and directors of nursing, which reports to the DHS. Under the DHS scheme to improve infection control services, the region employed a project officer in October 2001, for 12 months, to assist the practitioners to develop information management skills by which they could make more effective use of resources, particularly the internet. The successful applicant for the position was a librarian with extensive experience in the health field and information retrieval and management skills.

The project aims to bring the practitioners together to maximise their combined skills and knowledge, while extending their skills in information management to improve time management and take advantage of existing resources instead of creating their own.

After initial assessment of their skills, a training program was implemented to address their needs. Most practitioners were nurses who have had little need to develop computer skills, and have suddenly found themselves confronted with demands to produce reports, spreadsheets and access the internet. All these require competence which is difficult to pick up as you go along, and some find it easier than others.

The project will then address the requirements of the individual strategic plans and the regional strategic plan, developing a common approach to audits, surveillance and practice where possible. Most of the practitioners work under very tight time constraints and the skills acquired through targeted training should enable them to make the best use of their limited time.

The infection control practitioners have a primary responsibility for the organisations within which they are located, however they will provide an information service on a casual basis for other public facilities including schools and care centres should infection control information be required.

Gippsland Training Package 2008

The aim of this package is:

• To provide a concise educational reference tool for all nurses and midwives (Division 1, 2 and 3) working within the hospital environment.
• To provide a resource that may be used to train key liaison nurses to assist in the everyday management of infection control issues at a unit-based level.
• To increase the knowledge base of all nurses on the clinical issues related to infection control and how it relates to all areas of practice.

 Gippsland Training Package 2008 (211kb, pdf)

Contact information

Contact information for further queries.