Project Firstline Rhode Island Offers Infection Prevention and Control Resources for Healthcare Workers

Project Firstline Rhode Island (PFL RI) is a CDC-funded training collaborative of the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) focused on improving infection prevention and control knowledge and strategies across healthcare settings. PFL RI offers free infection prevention and control (IPC) trainings to all healthcare-based workers.

PFL RI trainings are focused on the learning needs of individual healthcare workers – clinical and non-clinical. The program offers publicly available trainings for environmental services (EVS) personnel – technicians, managers, those who are involved in EVS policy, leadership; nurses in various roles – RNs, LPNs, CNAs, administrators; clinicians —physicians, dental staff, podiatrists; facility administrators, emergency medical services (EMS) personnel, public health, infection preventionists—and many others.

PFL RI training resources are available to all healthcare settings, but the program is especially focused on ambulatory care, primary care, dental offices, “med spa” clinics, school-based clinics, home health settings, and other healthcare facilities that do not have their own infection prevention teams like some long-term care facilities. PFL RI welcomes all and has attendees from acute care facilities, dialysis, correction facility clinics, group homes, and behavioral health clinics, among others.

Project Firstline offers an infection control topic for every healthcare worker in any role they have.

PFL RI offers these trainings via live Zoom webinar, “on demand” recordings you can access after the live sessions are held, or PFL RI staff can offer on-site trainings to your facility for a big group – on a case-by-case basis. Trainings, in 30-, 45-, and 60-minutes sessions, are designed for adult learners, cognizant of the busy schedule that our healthcare colleagues have. So, we offer these trainings as refresher sessions. A growing list of courses are approved for continuing nursing education credits (CNE) and continuing education (CE) credits, including for IPC, dental, and EMS personnel.

PFL RI offers refresher trainings in English and Spanish.

These are some of the features of the PFL RI website where you can find:

a. Other training options

b. 4- to 5-minute infection control basics videos

c. Recorded live sessions

d. Options for self-directed trainings

e. Downloadable and printable lesson booklets, posters, infographics for your facility – or you can also email RIDOH.ProjectFirstline@health.ri.gov to request copies of those prints as well.

Below is an example of one of PFL RI’s posters. This is a poster on how to read a disinfectant label, available in Spanish and English. It’s a perfectly sized resource for staff breakrooms, supply storage doors, or hallways.

Below is a sample of a new resource that PFL RI has recently released, called Micro-Learns. The Micro-Learn poster here is about Blood. Blood is part of a training toolkit that has resources curated for healthcare facility educators to use – including some references to support them if they want to conduct their own in-house trainings. These toolkits and the PFL learning materials in general are very adaptable to your audience – so for your facility educators or experienced IP specialists who do education regularly, they can easily tailor these materials towards who their learners are.

In addition to live refresher webinars, PFL RI offers plenty of other IPC education and training options. Here is a summary of direct links to various resources that PFL has for all healthcare workers.

▪ Project Firstline Rhode Island websites:
     ProjectFirstlineRI.com (English)
     ProjectFirstlineRI.com/es (Spanish)

▪ Attend live refresher sessions — 30-, 45-, and 60-minutes:
Request to be added to PFL RI’s list for upcoming trainings
     RIDOH.ProjectFirstine@health.ri.gov

▪ Register for scheduled upcoming live trainings.

▪ Watch live refresher session recordings.

▪ Watch infection control video shorts – 5-minutes.

▪ Explore other training options.

▪ Request trainings, explore a partnership, or ask questions.

▪ Download print materials and job aids:
     Booklets.
     Posters.
     Infographics.

▪ Request print copies of Where Germs Live lesson booklets in English and Spanish.

▪ Training toolkits (full sessions and micro-learns) for facility educators to conduct their own in-house trainings:
     projectfirstlineri.com/training-resources#recognizing-risk
     projectfirstlineri.com/training-resources#introduction-to-reservoirs
     projectfirstlineri.com/training-resources#micro-learns

These are some of titles for PFL RI’s live Zoom Webinars in English and Spanish – and there are more to come!

✓ Hand Hygiene + Cleaning, Disinfection, and Sterilization for EVS Personnel

✓Where Germs Live for EVS Personnel

✓Recognizing Infection Risks for EVS Personnel

✓ Recognizing Infection Risks in Home Health Care

✓ Source Control and PPE

✓ Standard Precautions and Hand Hygiene

✓ Prevention of C. difficile Infections

✓ Prevention of C. auris Infections

✓ Enhanced Barrier Precautions

✓ Injection Safety: Single-dose versus Multi-dose Vials

✓ Infection Control Reminders for Healthcare Workers During Respiratory Virus Season

✓ Bloodborne Pathogens

✓ Environmental Cleaning, Disinfection, and Sterilization

✓ Where Germs Live Session 1: Body Reservoirs

✓ Where Germs Live Session 2: Healthcare Environment Reservoirs

✓ Transmission-Based Precautions: Mobile Care Teams in SNFs and ALFs

✓ Transmission-Based Precautions: School-Based Clinics

✓ Transmission-Based Precautions: Emergency Medical Services

✓ Recognizing Infection Risks Session 1: What Does it Mean to Recognize a Risk?

✓ Recognizing Infection Risks Session 2: How Germs Make People Sick

✓ Recognizing Infection Risks Session 3: Recognizing Risk Using Reservoirs

PFL RI is continuing to expand its offerings of English and Spanish language sessions for many IPC topics and has launched a new series focused on the training needs of Environmental Services staff. PFL RI will be offering more sessions and more topics for EVS next year.

PFL RI is working to offer most, if not all, of these trainings in both English and Spanish.

Feel free to email PFL RI if you want to be included in its distribution and newsletter list or contact us via the PFL RI website.

Register now for PFL RI’s upcoming refresher trainings. This link will be updated soon with the next series of training offerings for the rest of the 2023. Live trainings are offered every 2 to 3 weeks per quarter. Many trainings are approved for CNEs and CEs.

Follow PFL RI on its social media channels for updates on the training schedule and other IPC-related resources: X (formerly known as Twitter): @RI_Firstline, Facebook: @ProjectFirstlineRI, Instagram: ProjectFirstline_RI, LinkedIn: Project-Firstline-Rhode-Island