Evaluation findings support previous research indicating need for competency-based field-based training programs that include a strong mentoring component. These characteristics in a field-based training program can increase applied epidemiology capacity in various ways.
Pathology Autopsy and Mortuary Services have been front and center in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Co-V-2) pandemic. The sheer number of fatalities from the pandemic have been unlike any other in recent memory and needed the rapid creation of new protocols and paradigms to manage the situation. This required rapidly escalating mortuary capacity to manage the increased fatalities from the pandemic with the establishment of lines of communication and networking with governmental entities, institution of new policies for patient flow, and implementation of worker infection control and well-being plans. Autopsies also assumed a crucial role, both to provide insight into the pathomechanisms of a novel disease and to allow tissue retrieval necessary to power research directed towards finding a vaccine. We here outline the plan adopted by the Yale Autopsy and Mortuary Services, in alignment with the institutional mission of high-quality patient care, education, research and health care worker safety and well-being, as the Corona Virus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic surged in Connecticut. In the early response phase, ensuring sufficient mortuary capacity necessarily took center stage. As we enter the recovery and plateau phase of the pandemic, setting up a process for a rapid and safe autopsy, that will meet educational and research needs while ensuring the safety of our workforce is being implemented.
Purpose -This paper aims to describe the initial experiences in a new option of an established fellowship program, which can serve as a model that strengthens the next generation of our workforce for preventing healthcare-associated infections. Design/methodology/approach -Historical narrative. Findings -The CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellowship has a long history of success in producing future leaders for the public health workforce. As it expands into a healthcare-associated infections option, it is addressing an area new to traditional public health departments. However, this also is an area where public health must be viewed as part of the continuum of healthcare systems, where tomorrow's professionals must be credible in a number of settings (health departments, hospitals, clinics and extended care facilities). Practical implications -CSTE's first class of HAI Fellows offers a new model for producing the type of professionals necessary for the field of hospital epidemiology and infection control to achieve its full potential. Originality/value -This is the first published description of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists new Applied Epidemiology Fellowship "HAI" graduating class.
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