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National Standards for infection prevention and control (IPC) in community services

Status: Published on
Introduction

HIQA has developed specific national standards for community health and social care services in Ireland, which cover infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship.

The standards outline 20 standard statements and cover important areas such as communicating well with people who use community health or social care services, involving people in making decisions about their care, providing care in a clean and safe environment and prescribing antimicrobial medication in a safe manner.

    We have developed an online learning course to help front-line staff implement the national standards. Click here to read our press release.

    Take the online learning course on HSELanD here.
     
    The online learning course is hosted on HSELanD in the course catalogue ‘Health & Social Care Professionals’. The course is called: National Standards for infection prevention and control in community services: Putting the standards into practice

    If you require a certificate of completion you will need to login to HSELanD to complete the course. This is available to all those working in the health and social care sector, and to students in Irish universities or colleges, and there is no charge to set up an account. For further information, please visit HSELanD's help page.

    If you have any technical difficulties, please contact HSELanD technical support. If you have any difficulties in locating the course or any content queries, please contact the Standards Team at standards@hiqa.ie.

    Alternatively, you can complete the module here, under the tab 'Online Learning Courses', but it will not be possible to receive a certificate of completion.

    Additional tools have been developed to assist front-line staff and senior management to implement the national standards:

    • Complete our online learning course to learn practical ways that you can apply these standards in your day-to-day work.
    • Watch our short animation outlining what infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship are and what measures people and services can take to prevent the spread of infection.
    • View a one-page summary poster of the 20 National Standards.
    • Read our information leaflet for people using services on the National Standards. This outlines key messages from the standards and what people using services can do to prevent the spread of infections.

    Read our background document detailing the international and national evidence that was used to inform the development of the national standards.

    Read our Statement of Outcomes which outlines the feedback that was received during focus group discussions and the public consultation and how HIQA responded to the feedback.

    Or if you have any questions, you can email standards@hiqa.ie or call 01 814 7400 and ask to speak to a member of the Standards Team.

    • Statement of Outcomes

      Download
    • Summary poster of the 20 National Standards

      Download
    • information leaflet for people using services

      Download
    • Background document

      Download
    • Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

      Download