Infection control education improving in med schools
Infection control education improving in med schools
But contact hours, overall emphasis still lacking
There has been a significant increase in infection control education in medical schools in the United States over the last decade, but the field still receives inadequate emphasis and minimal contact hours in physician training, a recent study indicates.
The data were culled from a survey and curriculum review of 126 medical schools in 1995, and were compared to those generated by a similar effort 10 years earlier. Overall, there was a significant increase in infection control education, with 90% of schools including it in the medical school curriculum. Only 56% of schools were doing so in 1985. In addition, courses were offered earlier in the curriculum in 1995. Only 5% of courses were offered to first year students in 1985, compared to 30% in 1995.
The results were presented recently in Washington, DC, at the annual conference of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, by Michael Cunningham, PhD, research biologist with Merck & Co. in West Point, PA.
Despite the favorable signs, Cunningham found inadequate contact hours for topics addressing basic infection control principles and policies, and a continued misconception that the diagnosis and treatment of an infectious disease is infection control education.
"Mainly it is just highlighting -- maybe one or two hours," he tells Hospital Infection Control. "They really are not treating it very seriously. They didn't think it was that important. A lot of times it had to do with classroom time. They have so many hours to teach so many subjects, and I guess this is one of the areas they feel they could cut back."
On the other hand, there are exceptions like The Ohio State University in Columbus, which requires medical students to pass an infection control exam before they begin clinical rotations, he said. *
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