President's Welcome Message
Moving into a New Year
As the year ends, the CBIC Board and staff want to praise the infection prevention community for another year of service and applaud the community’s commitment to protecting the public’s health. We are proud of the progress made this year to continue to provide pathways to assess and maintain infection prevention competency in all healthcare settings.
CBIC Initiatives in 2021
CBIC routinely evaluates the CIC®’s eligibility requirements to ensure that they accurately reflect the current standards, experience, and educational levels which practicing infection prevention professionals are held to by industry standards. While earning the CIC® designation may be a future goal for a healthcare professional who elects to become an infection preventionist, the CIC® is a practice-based specialty meant for those who wish to demonstrate mastery after accruing professional experience in the field. CBIC’s newly updated requirements for CIC® Initial Certification and Lapsed Certificants ensure that only qualified candidates are taking the exam by giving applicants time to accrue the necessary expertise to increase the odds of success on the certification exam. The new eligibility criteria also further differentiates the entry level a-IPCTM designation from the CIC® while giving applicants a clearer picture of if and when they are eligible to sit for certification.
Reliability and validly of the CIC® examination is ensured through the test development process. In 2020, CBIC performed a Practice Analysis to update the examination content, ensuring that it accurately reflects the responsibilities and required knowledge of those practicing in the field of infection prevention and control. The beta testing period has concluded; thank you to candidates that participated! Applications reopen with the revised CIC® examination in early 2022.
The mission of CBIC is to provide pathways to assess and maintain infection prevention competency, ensuring that Infection Preventionists in specific settings are in possession of the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to serve patient populations. This year, CBIC has been taking steps toward fulfilling this mission by exploring a new infection prevention certification for those working in Long-Term Care settings. The Practice Analysis is now complete and test development will continue through 2022, with the goal of the long-term care examination going live in 2023. The progress made thus far is exciting and we look forward to sharing more details.
2022 CBIC Board of Directors
I would like to welcome CBIC President Sandra Callery and President-Elect Elaine Larson to their new leadership roles in 2022. We can look forward to their exceptional leadership to fulfill the mission and vision of CBIC.
A special thank you to Linda Goss, CBIC Board member and past president, as well as Frank Nemec and James Marx, CBIC Board members, as they conclude their terms on the CBIC Board of Directors. Each of them has provided countless contributions to fulfill the mission and vision of CBIC; your time and energy was truly appreciated.
Wrapping Up
My appreciation goes out to the entire CBIC Board of Directors and all infection prevention and control professionals for supporting my tenure as CBIC president. Taking on this role was extremely gratifying and I am very pleased at the progress made.
With appreciation,
Janet Glowicz, MPH, PhD RN, CIC, FAPIC
