Infection Preventionist

Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center:  Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. Vanderbilt Health is committed to an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and where your uniqueness is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt’s mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.

Organization:

Quality, Safety & Risk Prevent

Job Summary:

Responsible for identifying, investigating, monitoring, and reporting healthcare-associated infections. Collaborates with teams and individuals to create infection prevention strategies, provide feedback, and sustain infection prevention strategies.

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KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Assist in planning, developing, implementing, managing and evaluating infection prevention surveillance and epidemiologic investigation activities through a collaborative role with the department leadership as evidenced by the Infection Control Plan. Utilize epidemiologist principles to conduct surveillance and investigations.
• Identifies infectious diseases and develops a liaison role in public health disease reporting and emergency preparedness/emerging disease notification. Evaluates reports for communicable diseases as required by Tennessee State Law Chapter 1200-14-1 Notifiable Diseases to local and state health departments for completeness and coordinates with state and local health department officials for missing data.
• Preventing and controlling the transmission of infectious agents through evidence based infection prevention policies and procedures through collaboration with internal and external groups by identifying infection prevention strategies related to hand hygiene, control of environmental pathogens (Legionella, Aspergillus, etc.), recall of potentially contaminated equipment, food, medication, supplies, and transmission based precautions.
• Develops management and communication strategies to facilitate planning, communication and feedback, and quality/performance improvement and safety activities. Utilizes Performance Improvement methodology as a means of enacting change.
• Designs and delivers training and educational offerings relative to infection prevention for staff/faculty, students, volunteers, patients and families on the educational level appropriate for each group based on assessment of the learning needs.
• Collaborate regarding counseling, follow up, and work restriction recommendations related to communicable diseases/exposures in patients, employees, and communities.
• Recognizes and monitors elements important for a safe care environment including heating, ventilation, humidity, water standards, and construction issues that impact patient care settings.
• Identifies and evaluates appropriate cleaning, sterilization, and disinfection practices and quality control measures. Applies expert organizations' sterilization and disinfection recommendations to facilitate compliance and make recommendations.

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES
• Infection Prevention Research (Intermediate): Incorporates research constructs into the IP program in order to synthesize, apply and evaluate research while applying evidence based IP principles in challenging and complex situations.
• Professional Stewardship (Intermediate): Demonstrates accountability through communication, education, relationship building, and behavior change.
• Infection Prevention (Intermediate): Demonstrates infection prevention skills in practical applications. Trains and educates by setting the example and giving technical instruction.
• Infection Prevention Informatics (Intermediate): Has a working knowledge of surveillance technology and leverages data inputs to help identify healthcare associated infections and other reportable infections as well as managing automated reporting.
• Continuous Process Improvement (Intermediate): Identifies, analyzes and improves upon existing business processes for optimization and to meet standards of quality.  Coaches senior and executive leadership in defining metrics and goals.
• Leadership (Intermediate): Formulates a vision while motivating & guiding employees promoting engagement. Leaders state precise goals, ensures the commitment of individuals to those goals, defines the methods of measurement, and provides the incentive to accomplish measureable outcomes.