The MHA Keystone Center, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), created a series of online learning modules for infection control and prevention education. The modules cater to the needs of Michigan hospitals and are available at no cost.
Niki McGuire, the manager of the multidrug resistant organisms containment unit at MDHHS, and Josh Suire, a senior manager of safety and quality at the MHA Keystone Center, share the purpose of the series and how healthcare providers in Michigan can use the resource to improve infection prevention practices.
What is Project Firstline?
What is Project Firstline?McGuire: Project Firstline is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) training collaborative that aims to provide more accessible infection control education for frontline healthcare workers. MDHHS partnered with the MHA Keystone Center to develop CDC-based education materials for Michigan’s healthcare workers. With a shared goal of creating accessible and applicable content, the MDHHS and MHA Keystone Center worked together to create six online courses. Three courses in the series are geared toward infection preventionists, with an emphasis on quality improvement best practices. The series also offers courses geared toward frontline workers that serve as a great training resource for staff to interact with at their convenience.
Suire: The Project Firstline modules were created with healthcare workers’ needs and preferences at the forefront. As a nurse with bedside experience myself, I understand healthcare providers are stretched thin. We intentionally built all the courses in an online system that allows participants to check in and out of the classroom around their schedule. Each module is also designed to take less than 45 minutes to complete.
What is the commitment associated with participating?
Suire: These resources were created to meet healthcare workers where they are. The courses are available to Michigan healthcare workers at no cost. We encourage participants to engage with the courses at their convenience. While the courses were created to be completed as a series, healthcare workers are welcome to take courses specific to their training needs.
What are the main takeaways a participant will obtain after taking the courses?
McGuire: MDHHS offers the assessment portion of the CDC’s Infection Control Assessment and Response (ICAR) tool to all acute- and long-term care facilities in Michigan. We are non-regulatory. The first two modules in this series are great for infection preventionists looking to begin the ICAR process – providing background information about the entire process and how to engage with MDHHS Healthcare Associated Infections team. The clinical modules will provide frontline workers with the competencies needed to engage in on-the-spot critical thinking about infection prevention – sharing best practices for hand-hygiene, transmission-based precautions and more.
Suire: The MHA Keystone Center aims to deliver frontline healthcare workers fun, interactive learning modules with basic infection prevention practices that should be implemented in day-to-day patient/resident care activities. It is our hope facilities across the state use these modules as part of their infection control and prevention program. We encourage all Michigan acute- and long-term care facilities to take advantage of this free resource to reduce the preventable spread of infections.
To learn more about the Project Firstline series, visit the module series webpage or contact the MHA Keystone Center.