Adapting IPC: Tailoring core practices to unique environments
Tracks
Meeting Room 1.61 - 1.62
| Monday, June 30, 2025 |
| 12:30 PM - 1:00 PM |
Overview
Speaker: Dr Arifa Parker
Speaker
Dr Arifa Parker
ICAN/Stellenbosch University/Tygerberg Hospital
Adapting IPC: Tailoring core practices to unique environments
Abstract
Context and Rationale: Adapting IPC principles to unique environments is crucial for optimal patient outcomes.
Approach: Recognition and understanding of hospitalized patient populations who require tailored IPC approaches, with a focus on patients with thermal/burns injuries, the hematology/oncology patient with neutropenia. and the emergency unit.
Results: Descriptive case studies will be used to demonstrate implementation strategies of IPC best practices in unique environments. Consideration for resource constrained settings will be made, with prioritization of key interventions, and adapting to resource availability.
Conclusions: By adapting core IPC practices to unique environments, we can reduce the risk of healthcare associated infections and improve safety in the hospital.
Approach: Recognition and understanding of hospitalized patient populations who require tailored IPC approaches, with a focus on patients with thermal/burns injuries, the hematology/oncology patient with neutropenia. and the emergency unit.
Results: Descriptive case studies will be used to demonstrate implementation strategies of IPC best practices in unique environments. Consideration for resource constrained settings will be made, with prioritization of key interventions, and adapting to resource availability.
Conclusions: By adapting core IPC practices to unique environments, we can reduce the risk of healthcare associated infections and improve safety in the hospital.
Biography
Arifa Parker is a physician and infectious diseases specialist and is the head of the Unit for Infection Prevention and Control (UIPC) at Tygerberg Hospital/Stellenbosch University. She received a Discovery Foundation sub-specialist award in 2013. She completed her PhD in 2023, and her research interests include IPC, AMS, outbreak response & interplay between infectious disease and non-communicable diseases. She is the current president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Southern Africa, a 2023 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) International Ambassador and is an Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN) board member. Her interests are infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, and the relationships between infections and non-communicable diseases.
