Tania Bubb, PhD, RN, CIC, FAPIC. Photo by Richard DeWitt.

In a video interview of Dr. Tania Bubb, MSK’s Director of Infection Control, Infection Control Today features a study she presented at the annual conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

Infection preventionists (IPs) were invited to fill out surveys regularly from March through July 2020. IPs from 16 US states and three other countries reported both exhaustion at the peak of the COVID pandemic and increased empowerment and value at their institutions. They noted that the pandemic led their colleagues to take hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) more seriously than ever before, at the same time expressing frustration with PPE shortages.

Dr. Bubb closed the interview by applauding IPs as unsung heroes of the pandemic: 

They may not have taken care of patients directly, but their policies, their procedures, their vigilance, and their enthusiasm for their jobs supported those who took care of the patients and laid the groundwork for how those who took care of the patients would remain safe.