The APIC Megasurvey gave us a lot of information about our profession: It’s aging (we are mostly over 50), less than half of us are certified (horrors!). But what was missing from the survey, that I consider important, is about vacancy. How many facilities have vacancies they can’t fill? How long are postings open before being filled? Did the hiring manager get the type of person they advertised for, or did they settle for something less?
In my area, ICPs are becoming harder to find. I see job postings linger longer. I hear colleagues are retiring. I am leaving my position soon, and gave my employer nearly six months notice, knowing how hard it is to fill the position. We had only one applicant. A part-time position I had last year called to see if I was interested in returning--the position has been open since I left a year ago. Smaller facilities struggle, and most US facilities are smaller--2/3rds have less than 200 beds, and 28% have less than 50, according to NHSN data. And that’s just acute care sites. There are nursing homes and outpatient clinics and surgery centers and psychiatric facilities--all in need of good infection preventionists, but with a seemingly small pool of qualified talent to draw from.
There is a yawning gap between some people genuinely interested in this career, and the career, because there is not always a way to take one’s suitable education and get a job whilst having no experience. I don’t believe we have clearly laid out a path into this profession. We are failing ourselves and our discipline. Yes, there are a few online graduate programs now, but some are MSN programs--only good if you have a BSN.
I met a lovely woman recently, looking for a US ICP job. She “only” had international experience and couldn’t seem to get a job here. I say “only” because I would simply die at my good fortune if a multilingual, master’s prepared, well-spoken person applied to my department fresh off a stint implementing an infection control and sanitation program in a resource-poor setting. THIS is public health, THIS is program planning, THIS requires innovation, THIS is someone I want to talk to. But she had no US hospital experience, and employers couldn’t see past it.
What she needed was an internship or mentorship of some kind. Bigger hospitals or systems can mentor a new person in to the job (grow your own), but smaller sites don’t have anyone to do it, especially if the last ICP is leaving or has already left. This is really an unfortunate set-up. Hospitals willing to do so could offer a mentorship or internship to interested professionals, as a type of schooling, but it would likely be unpaid, and thus they’d need candidates who could afford to spend several months working with the ICP, full time, for no money. There aren’t many candidates who could afford to do that.
Also, it seems employers can’t see past the “infection control nurse” title. You. don’t. need. to. be. a. nurse. But the hiring manager or director is often NOT an ICP. They are perhaps the quality manager, the nursing director, the vice president of patient care, and don’t always fully understand what skill set it takes to be successful. The large number of nurses in any facility clouds one’s view of all of the other professions who have equal, although different, education and skills. Some nurses are only diploma-educated. Your respiratory therapists are much more qualified than that nurse. I can see a process management person doing well in this job. Certainly anyone with epidemiology training can succeed. It is the process improvement piece that is the bigger part of this job, much bigger than the nursing piece. Employers are limiting themselves, and very qualified people are being left out. Employers that can’t fill positions sometimes go to contract agencies. I’ve looked at these jobs, and most list the position as “RN required.” And I think, maybe if you changed your requirements, you would have been able to fill the position. Now you’ve just turfed the problem to someone else.
We need a gap closer. We need that middle mentorship piece. We need to educate employers about the position, and what skill sets will be successful. We need to advertise the career. The APIC Roadmap is great, once you’re in, but we need a map of the path that leads to the road.
