Below is an index of all the clinical topics discussed in this toolkit. Each topic contains presentations on evidence and best practices, along with relevant resources. Select each of the below sections to see more.
Implementation and Sustainability of Interventions To Improve Skin Care and Prevent MDRO Infections in Long-Term Care Facilities
Improving skin care and preventing multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections are important parts of quality resident care and safety. Learn more about implementing and sustaining the ƵSafety Program for MRSA Prevention: Improving Skincare and MDRO Prevention in Long-Term Care.
The 3 Cs of Healthcare: Working Together To Prevent Infection
This section provides an overview of the three Cs of healthcare: communication, collaboration, and connection. These are important concepts to facilitate conversation and prevent harms to resident care and safety.
Aging Skin: The Importance of Care and Assessment
This section provides information about caring for and assessing aging skin. This topic includes information for assessing resident preferences and comfort levels prior to bathing, describing skin changes and places where medical devices enter patients’ skin, how to reach inaccessible body parts during bathing, an overview of aging skin, how to care for skin as it ages, and best practices to provide quality care of aging skin.
Skin Under Pressure: Preventing Pressure Injury
Review what a pressure injury is, how to stage a pressure injury, and how preventing pressure injury can reduce skin and soft tissue infections.
Keep the Bugs Out! Preventing Surgical Site Infections
Long-term care residents are at risk for surgical site infections (SSIs). This section reviews how to care for, culture, assess, and document surgical wounds, and how to reduce SSIs.
Enhanced Barrier Precautions and Multidrug-Resistant Organism Prevention in Long-Term Care
Enhanced barrier precautions are a type of transmission-based precautions developed specifically for the long-term care setting, where individuals live in the same place that they receive care. This section provides information, tools, and resources about enhanced barrier precautions.
“This is the Way We Wash Our Hands” Hand Hygiene
Hand hygiene is an important, foundational infection prevention concept. This section will provide a review, resources, and tools for good quality hand hygiene in long-term care facilities.
Down and Dirty With Stool: Enteric Pathogens
Bacteria and resistant organisms can be spread through stool. This section will provide information about how bacteria in stool can be spread to others and cause infections in the body. Additionally, this section provides information about transmission-based precautions that can be implemented to help prevent the spread of resistant organisms.
Caring for Residents With Central Lines: Preventing CLABSI
The long-term care setting includes many individuals who have a central line. This section on central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) is an additional opportunity to promote safe, quality care of resident skin, while preventing infection.
Go With the Flow: Preventing Urinary Tract Infections
This module will discuss the importance of preventing urinary tract infections (UTIs), best practices for UTI prevention in long-term care, and challenges around bathing individuals with indwelling urinary catheters.
Choosing the Right Drug for the Bug: Antibiotic Stewardship for Skin and Soft Tissue Infections
Antibiotic stewardship employs evidence-based decision making to optimize appropriate antibiotic use. This section discusses the importance of antibiotic stewardship, best practices, and guidance for implementation of interventions.
Where Do Germs Live: Environmental Cleaning
Contamination of the resident environment is a key pathway of transmission that should be addressed as part of any infection prevention effort. This section presents an overview of the key components of education around environmental cleaning as well as the implementation, resources, and materials for interventions.
