The American Nurses Association (ANA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recently partnered to create the Nursing Infection Control Education (NICE) Network. NICE Network members come from 20 specialty nursing organizations holding memberships with ANA in collaboration to empower nurses to protect themselves and their patients from infections.
Members will work together to develop infection prevention and control training materials which will assist nurses with how to handle and contain emerging infectious diseases including Ebola and Zika virus. An emerging infection disease is defined as a disease that is newly recognized in an area or that affects a large population or geographic area.
Other recent infectious diseases include severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H1N1 influenza, and West Nile virus. These diseases make it crucial that healthcare providers be able to rapidly detect and contain emerging infectious diseases and contain antibiotic resistance threats before an emerging disease becomes a global pandemic.
ANA will serve as the primary contractor of the project which is scheduled to run through May 31, 2018. The project will provide nurses with real-time, tailored infection control training critical to effective response to infectious disease. The main objectives for the project include:
- Identifying infection control-related training needs
- Developing educational tools and outreach materials for registered nurses and nursing-related professionals
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