The Nebraska Medicine Infection Control and Epidemiology Department (IC&E) is well recognized for excellence. The department is staffed by 5 full-time Infection Preventionists (IP), a data analyst, and a staff assistant; Terry Michaels, manages the department. Dr. Rupp serves as the Medical Director and is assisted by Drs. Ashraf, Cawcutt, Marcelin, and VanSchooneveld as Associate Directors.
During the first 2 years of ID Fellowship, UMMC ID fellows have terrific opportunities to learn about infection prevention and the hospital infection control program. Each fellow has a month-long elective in infection control – during that month of intense study, they learn the nuts and bolts of hospital infection control. Working alongside experienced IPs and medical directors, ID fellows have hands on observation of infection surveillance, healthcare associated infection prevention efforts, and outbreak investigation.
During the month rotation a small special project is also conducted and a specialized curriculum/lecture series is conducted. ID fellows are exposed to the infection control literature during a monthly infection control journal club in which they take turns critiquing recent publications along with IPs and faculty. The infection control experience is capped off by attendance of the SHEA/CDC basic course in Hospital Epidemiology. For the ID fellow interested in infection control as a career, opportunity for a third year of Fellowship directed toward specialized training in infection control and hospital epidemiology is encouraged.
Additional opportunities for experience and research in infection control is afforded through the CDC/Nebraska HHS-funded Infection Control Assessment and Promotion Program (ICAP) that is charged with improving infection control practices in health care settings (long-term care, critical access hospitals, acute care, dialysis units, ambulatory surgical centers, etc.) across the state of Nebraska. Learn more about the Nebraska ICAP directed by Dr. Salman Ashraf at https://icap.nebraskamed.com/
To learn more about individual infectious disease faculty working in infection control in the recent projects and publications, see the ID division website at https://www.unmc.edu/intmed/divisions/id/index.html
Content provided by Dr. Mark Rupp MD, Division Chief and Medical Director of Infection Control and Epidemiology