IPAC Canada Publications

There are several IPAC principles and practices that are essential in stopping the spread of infectious agents, preventing infections, and promoting safe environments that are applicable to every role within the healthcare system. These include principles and practices related to the Chain of Infection, Routine Practices and maintaining a Healthy Workplace.

The following competencies may be role or sector specific or may only be required as specific issues arise (e.g., construction or renovation of an area). All persons working in healthcare should have knowledge and skills in these areas to a level indicated by their role and setting.

The knowledge and skills reflected in these supporting competencies are wider-ranging and not specific to IPAC. They are however important for facilitating healthcare providers’ capacity and capability to develop their IPAC competencies and translate them into their work practices.

Ethical Infection Prevention and Control (EIPAC) Decision-Making Framework (APIC and IPAC-Canada)

The EIPAC framework provides a step-by-step fair process for IPs/IPCs and/or other involved stakeholders to work through ethical issues that arise in IPC. The framework is designed specifically to address issues that will have substantive impacts on patients/residents, families, visitors, and staff. The framework can be used in both acute care settings and congregate living settings, such as nursing homes/long-term care homes and independent living facilities. This framework is not meant for clinical/ medical reasoning around investigation or treatment at the individual patient or resident level, but specifically for ethically complex IPC decisions. View Framework.

Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) Program Standard

The landmark 2013 Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) Program Standard described the culture, scope, and foundational framework necessary for a successful IPAC Program, synthesizing Canadian and international guidance and then current scientific literature. Much has happened in the ten years that have followed, including novel and imported infectious diseases such as pandemic H1N1 influenza, and most notably the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. These organisms became healthcare-associated infections, transmitted within organizations as well as the larger community. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to grow, especially carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), and more recently, multidrug-resistant Candida auris in Canada. And yet, the standards in the 2013 document still stand the test of time!

The 2023-2024 reviewers realigned the Standards based on an adaptation of the World Health Organization (WHO) core components of infection prevention programs: guidelines, education and training, surveillance, and monitoring with audit and feedback, and incorporated the enabling environment of organizational support. The Standard describes an overarching organizational IPAC Program, not simply a team within it. Usefulness of the document has been enhanced by reducing duplication and increasing applicability across healthcare settings.

New Standards were added to address diversity, equity, and inclusion as part of organizational work-life, and to highlight the need for a standardized approach to ethical IPAC decision-making, in the wake of the pandemic’s detrimental effects on quality of life. In addition, the global impact of IPAC practices on healthcare, human, and planetary resources, with a responsibility for their stewardship through conservation, preservation, and effective policies is noted.

The implementation of IPAC Canada’s Program Standard will contribute to safe patient/resident/client care and IPAC practice in Canada – and beyond.

• The Infection Prevention and Control Program Standard (November 2024).
• Normes pour les programmesde prévention et de contrôle des infections (Novembre 2024)

NOTE: IPAC Canada members may download the IPAC Canada Program Audit Tool (PAT©) and auditing annex, Auditing the IPAC Program, to carry out audits of an organization’s IPAC program against the IPAC Program Standard. Both documents are currently under revision.

IPAC Canada Collaborations

• Epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile infection in Canada: A six-year review to support vaccine decision-making
• Measuring and Monitoring Healthcare-Associated Infections: A Canadian Collaboration to Better Understand the Magnitude of the Problem
• Antimicrobial use among adult inpatients at hospital sites within the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program: 2009 to 2016
• Clean Intermittent Urethral Catheterization in Adults Canadian Best Practice Recommendations for Nurses & Power Point Slides (NSWOCC, CNCA, UNC, IPAC-Canada)