A team of clinicians from Turks and Caicos Islands Hospital recently attended the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) 44th annual conference in Portland, Oregon on June 14-16 2017, which is the premier forum and largest gathering in the world for infection prevention and epidemiology professionals.
The APIC conference featured three days of more than 90 cutting-edge educational sessions and workshops led by leading clinical, industry, and public health experts from across the globe and attended by nearly 5,000 professionals. Professionals capitalized on the opportunity to stay ahead of emerging issues, industry-hot topics and analyzed abstract presentations on critical issues like multidrug-resistant organisms, public reporting and safe injection practices.
The delegation from INTERHEALTH Canada (IHC) TCI comprised Orthopedic Surgeon, Doctor Richard Knobloch, Senior Infection Prevention & Control Nurse, Sur-bre-na Pedi-can, Operating Room Nurse, Jennifer Masi-clat and Senior Nurse, Celeste Hunt.
The conference aimed to provide infection preventionists, physicians, researchers, epidemiologists, educators, administrators, and medical technologists with strategies that can be implemented immediately to improve prevention programs and make healthcare safer.
The delegation visited the largest exhibit hall, dedicated to infection-prevention, to learn about scientific advances in equipment and devices, and were able to identify a number of products to recommend for usage at TCI Hospital. The team also organized an exploratory visit to Salem Health Hospital, which is a 435 bed, full service healthcare facility, serving an area of 400,000 residents in the state of Oregon.
Following the APIC Conference, Nurse Surbrena Pedican travelled to Geneva, Switzerland to participate in the 4th International Conference on Prevention & Infection Control (ICPIC) and IPC training workshop held by the World Health Organization on June 20-24 2017.
An abstract on multiple drug resistant organisms created by Nurse Pedican was showcased during the conference in Switzerland and she was able to network with IPC leaders from across the world.
