Recruitment and hiring practices in United States infection prevention and control departments: Results of a national survey

•Infection Preventionists are primarily recruited using on-line job boards, internal job postings or word of mouth.•Open positions are most often filled in 3-6 months.•Recruiters should consider hiring and training their own and hiring for diversity. Infection prevention is a profession that require...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of infection control 2021-01, Vol.49 (1), p.70-74
Main Authors: Gilmartin, Heather, Reese, Sara M., Smathers, Sarah
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cross Infection
Hiring
Humans
Infection Control
Infection Control Practitioners
Infection Preventionist
Personnel Selection
Recruitment
Surveys and Questionnaires
Training
United States
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Infection Preventionists are primarily recruited using on-line job boards, internal job postings or word of mouth.•Open positions are most often filled in 3-6 months.•Recruiters should consider hiring and training their own and hiring for diversity. Infection prevention is a profession that requires highly specified skills and clinical experience. Infection Preventionists (IPs) direct interventions that protect patients from health care-associated infections across clinical and community settings. To enhance the hiring and recruitment of diverse IPs, it is key to understand current recruitment and hiring practices A national on-line survey was performed with members of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) who participate in the recruitment and hiring of IPs in their organization. Descriptive statistics were calculated for respondent and organizational demographics, IP recruitment strategies and hiring practices. In the fall of 2019, 522 APIC members from 101 of 113 APIC chapters (89% chapter response rate) participated in the survey. A vacant IP position was reported by 25% (n = 126) of respondents. Recent IP hires were primarily nurses (70%; n = 346) recruited from outside the organization (54%; n = 270). Online job-boards (eg, Indeed and Monster) and internal organizational job postings were the most frequently used recruitment strategies. The results provide a summary of practices for IP recruitment and hiring that can inform local and national initiatives to increase the number and professional diversity of IPs.
ISSN:0196-6553
1527-3296
DOI:10.1016/j.ajic.2020.07.024