Developmental path of the infection preventionist

The Novice infection preventionist (IP) has very limited knowledge, skills, experience, and basis in which to have situational awareness in infection prevention and control (IPC) and epidemiology. The Novice must rely on rules and concepts to guide their practice and begin to develop their knowledge/skills in the core competencies.

At this stage, the IP continues to build on their knowledge/skills in the core competencies while developing into an independent practitioner. The Becoming Proficient practitioner is able to briefly move beyond rule-based thinking to identify common trends that need to be addressed to ensure patient safety. Their knowledge and proficiency level will vary based on their previous training, setting, role, size of their team, and the extent that they have opportunities to experience and apply specific areas of IPC practice.

In this stage, the IP can demonstrate proficient knowledge of the core competencies through successfully achieving the CIC® credential. The CIC® indicates that the IP has knowledge required for competent performance in IPC. During this stage, the IP begins to apply the core competencies independently and deepens their knowledge and application of the future-oriented competency domains in APIC’s Competency Model. The proficient IP is able to use past experiences to shape future thinking about a situation.

The Expert IP consistently and reliably demonstrates professional expertise (and at times very advanced levels of mastery) in the IPC core competencies and future-oriented competency domains. The Expert IP shares their knowledge and skills through mentoring, research, publication, collaboration, leadership, and educating other IPs. The expert is able to analyze more rapidly than any other stage and guide future decisions based on experience and perceptual acuity to achieve defined outcomes.