Know What You Don't Know

Ok, so what next?  How do I learn all this stuff?   Well, first, you need an assessment—of yourself.  You need to know what areas you are lacking.  If you are a healthcare professional, you probably already have some body of knowledge—nurses know some stuff, lab techs know some stuff, respiratory therapists know some areas.  If you’re an MPH without clinical experience, you have a different body of knowledge.   But you have to find out what you don’t know.

Look at the content of the certification exam.  Do any of those topics sound completely unfamiliar?  Then that’s where you should start.  APIC has a roadmap for new ICPs—what you should know in your first 60 days, first 6 months, first year, etc.   They also produce a text with everything you need—either an enormous book or online access.  Join APIC to get access to the roadmap and the text.  Go ahead, pay the membership fee: it’s a very small investment towards your career.

APIC is an excellent professional organization.  You get emails when anything major happens: new regulatory requirements, new research, new outbreaks, new documents you need.  They have job listings, a consulting service, there’s an online forum where you can ask questions and people from all over the place answer you.  There’s a huge annual conference, and there are local chapters that you can join.  My local chapter covers a large area and hosts two large conferences each year with great speakers and the chance to meet with product vendors.  So get going, start learning what things you don’t know.  Then come back soon, and I’ll tell you practical ways to learn about what you don’t know.  J