Lunch and Learn Webinars

ACIPC offers free online webinars on IPC topics of interest, with interesting and experienced presenters from a wide range of disciplines. 

Members can view recordings of our webinars here:
https://www.acipc.org.au/members/webinars/ 

Recent Lunch and Learn webinars  

Topic: Indoor Air Quality: Science, Practice, Legislation

Presenter: Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska

Description: 

Despite decades of effort by many experts and a wealth of evidence about the magnitude of the problem, the issue of indoor air quality (IAQ) in public buildings, including healthcare facilities, has attracted little attention. Indoor air pollution originates from both indoor and outdoor sources. In addition to sources that people operate indoors (including medical procedures in healthcare facilities), create or introduce to indoor environments, emissions also arise from humans in the form of respiratory effluents (including pathogens and therefore increased risk of infection transmission) and body odours. Unlike outdoor air, indoor air is largely unregulated; while national building design standards prescribe ventilation parameters, and emissions from certain building materials in certain countries are regulated, there are basically no IAQ performance standards. In the absence of standards, what can we practically do to improve IAQ? When deciding on actions, several general aspects must be considered.  Firstly, every indoor space is different, so monitoring needs to be conducted in every public indoor space. Secondly, we cannot use bulky and expensive compliance monitors for every indoor space. And thirdly, pathogens related to indoor airborne infection transmission cannot yet be routinely monitored indoors in real-time.  Therefore, we must carefully choose what to monitor, balancing the need to gather information on pollutants that are key health risks or their proxies, but also considering which pollutants can realistically be measured to provide information on IAQ based on existing technologies; and in the future – for compliance with IAQ standards.

Topic: Making correctional centres resilient to infectious diseases and communicable disease outbreaks

Presenter: Jane Connolly

Description: 

Learn about infection prevention and control in the custodial setting. Public health approaches and key fundamental principles of infection prevention and control remain the mainstay of patient safety and outbreak management in prisons.

Correctional centre environments and their populations are located across all of NSW, geographically within other local health districts (LHDs), and present a particular set of challenges for infection prevention and communicable disease control.

Populations in custody are known to have an over-represented burden of disease compared to the general population, including higher rates of comorbidity, and infectious and transmissible disease. Given the high level of vulnerability of the prison population, COVID-19 and all other communicable diseases pose a serious risk to the health outcomes of prisoners and the wider population. The global COVID-19 pandemic has provided opportunities for further strengthening of infection prevention and communicable disease control strategies, thereby helping to ensure that this high-risk population is more resilient to infectious disease transmission and outbreaks in the future.

Topic: Introduction to IPC in the pre-hospital setting

Presenter: Jennifer Sealy

Description: 

This presentation covers some of the hot topics in the IPAC pre-hospital care space and how they may differ to the hospital space.

Topic: How to write a successful research grant 

Presenter: Amanda Corley 

Description: 

Learn how to increase your chances of success when writing a research grant. Get some quick tips on how to craft a grant proposal which is clear, compelling, appeals to the funder and sets you up for success. This session will be particularly useful for anyone considering applying for the ACIPC Seed or Early Career Researcher grants which are currently open to ACIPC members. 

Topic: Using cameras for hand hygiene auditing – opening a ‘Pandora’s box or worms; and completing a PhD to boot 

Presenter: Dr Katherine McKay 

Description: 

Direct observation is the mandated method for collecting data about health care worker (HCW) hand hygiene compliance in Australia. Yet the approach has been criticised as being a time consuming way of collecting compliance rates which do not reflect practice the majority of the time. Various electronic approaches have been suggested as solutions to the ‘problems’ associated with direct observation, however a deep dive into the literature revealed that most rely on proxy measures of compliance rather than measuring practice according to the 5-moment framework. This presentation describes the results of a PhD study which explored the utility of video monitoring systems (VMS) for hand hygiene auditing. It outlines the potential for positive benefits as a results of the use of VMS and well as identifying barriers to implementation and areas for future investigation. A pitfall of any investigation is the myriad of other ideas, concepts and themes which emerge which, while interesting, are not strictly relevant to the study at hand. One of these rabbit holes, tempting to divert down, was the purpose and intent behind the act of direct observational auditing. It is this, ‘Pandora’s box of worms’ that will also be opened and shared along with the results described in the final PhD thesis. 

Topic:– How to write an abstract 

Presenter: A/Prof Holly Seale 

Description: 

Learn how to create clear, concise, and compelling summaries that capture the essence of your research. This session will cover essential elements, from structuring your abstract to choosing impactful words. Open to anyone considering submitting an abstract to the 2024 ACIPC Conference or an international infection prevention and control conference. 

Topic: Have Bug, Will Travel: Pathways to Infection and Prevention 

Presenter: Dr Wava Truscott PhD 

Description: 

In this edition of our Lunch and Learn series we were joined by Dr. Wava Truscott PhD. Dr. Truscott is founder of Truscott MedSci Associates, a consulting company focusing on current concerns in healthcare including infection prevention, improved patient outcomes, and staff risk reduction. These goals are addressed, by developing educational courses, speaking engagements, authoring articles, and assisting with experimental design. 

This webinar was brought to you by ACIPC, Owens & Minor and Halyard. 

Note: CPD points were available only for those who participated in the live session. 

Topic: Mould in the Healthcare Environment 

Presenter: Sarah Bailey 

Description: 

This Lunch & Learn session is an introduction to mould in the healthcare environment, how it gets there, and what you can do about preventing it and getting rid of it, and also appropriate responses to it in healthcare, based on risks to patients.