To support infection prevention and control education among healthcare personnel, the New Jersey Department of Health is awarding $800,000 in funding to the New Jersey Hospital Association, Healthcare Association of New Jersey, Rutgers Project ECHO, and the New Jersey Association of County and City Health Officials.
The four grantees will create and distribute dedicated infection prevention training to their target audiences.
Using evidence-based protocols, the New Jersey grantees’ work will address immediate infection prevention training needs, delivered via a variety of training platforms such as virtual on demand, in person, self-paced learning, and podcasts to a diverse set of healthcare providers in a variety of settings throughout the state. Each grantee is tasked with offering a targeted focus on their organization’s areas of expertise, servicing long term care and nursing home professionals, acute care providers, local health departments, and more.
“Building a strong foundation for infection prevention at every level of healthcare remains a priority for New Jersey,” said Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli. “We are pleased to help support these organizations to ensure infection prevention basics are taught in a variety of healthcare settings to a wide range of personnel.”
The Department’s Communicable Disease Service (CDS) received the funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Project Firstline to build infection prevention capacity throughout the state.
Infection control is a critical part of safe healthcare delivery in all healthcare settings. Project Firstline is a program designed to assist states in providing effective Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) training to the more than 6 million frontline healthcare personnel (HCP), as well as members of the public health workforce to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases.
This initiative’s goal is to provide diverse local and regional IPC trainings, develop novel educational tools, and engage with frontline healthcare providers in a wide variety of healthcare settings, including acute care, long-term care, and outpatient facilities. Regardless of training or educational background, training recipients will be able to understand and confidently apply the infection control principles and protocols.
Of the $801,200 grants funding, the New Jersey Hospital Association received $211,750, the Healthcare Association of New Jersey received $211,793, Rutgers Project ECHO received $223,641, and the New Jersey Association of County and City Health Officials received $154,016.
The awarded funding was part of a competitive process in which applicants applied for a range of funding by submitting tentative project plans that were systematically reviewed for their educational content and delivery, target audiences and communication plans. Trainings and education provided by grant awardees will build infection prevention capacity throughout New Jersey.
More information about Project Firstline can be found on the NJDOH website, and on the CDC’s website at https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/projectfirstline/index.html.
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