Infection prevention and control education for healthcare workers is an important component that helps build knowledge and skills for the implementation of infection prevention and control initiatives and practices as per the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards.
The Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare states: Education and training underpin efforts to integrate infection prevention and control into practices at all levels of every healthcare facility. For further details, refer to the guideline as above.
There are a range of undergraduate and postgraduate education programs relating to infection prevention and control, available from both public and private education and training providers including SA Health e learning, the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC), The Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) and a number of universities.
Infection prevention and control online resources are available to all SA Health employees. There are currently three infection prevention and control related resources available to SA Health staff:
Access these resources, visit the relevant Local Health Network or State Wide Service iLearn or education and training site.
Winter Illness Outbreak Preparedness Seminar
Date: Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Audience: for SA Health and private organisations
Reprocessing and Sterilisation half day Update Seminar
Date: Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Audience: for SA Health and private organisations
Infection Prevention and Control Annual Update Seminar
Date: Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Audience: for SA Health and private organisations
Dates, workshops and seminars are subject to change.
See below examples of universities offering IPC related education, however, refer to individual university websites for further information about available courses.
The ACSQHC offers an online training package consisting of 10 learning modules on infection prevention and control topics, designed for beginner infection control professionals. Also available are:
For more information, visit the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care website.
The ACIPC Foundations of Infection Prevention and Control course provides a pathway for further learning for those wishing to pursue a career as an infection control professional. The course comprises of 11 modules and is designed for professionals working in the areas of health and allied health care, acute care, rural and remote health, office-based practice, residential aged care, community health and health policy. There is a fee for this course.
For more information, visit the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control website.
The ACIPC Mentoring Program aims to contribute to the future of the Infection Prevention and Control profession by pairing mentees with suitable mentors across all fields in a professional relationship of growth and development. This course is free for ACIPC members.
For more information see the ACIPC Mentoring Program website.
The NHHI Learning Management System (LMS) hosts a suite of online learning modules on hand hygiene and infection prevention and control. These modules are suitable for healthcare workers, student healthcare workers and for other industries where infection prevention and control is important.
There are three hand hygiene modules:
The ACSQHC NHHI hosts a suite of online eLearning modules, including hand hygiene, providing information on the principles of infection prevention and control in the Australian healthcare setting.
These modules are suitable for healthcare workers, student healthcare workers and other industries where infection prevention and control is important, including residential care facilities and in the community.
The Basics of Infection Prevention and Control module provides a basic orientation and foundation on which to build infection prevention and control knowledge.
The ACSQHC has developed new hand hygiene auditor training pathways for Hand Hygiene Auditors and Hand Hygiene Auditor Educators. For further information, visit the ACSQHC NHHI Auditor training and validation webpage.
Hand hygiene auditors are selected, trained, validated and supported according to requirements as per the NHHI and 5 moments of Hand Hygiene to ensure consistent data collection and reporting.
The NHHI has a number of audit tools available to support hand hygiene auditing in acute and non-acute settings.
Facilities not meeting the requirements for national data submission may choose to utilise the SA Health Hand hygiene observation audit tool (PDF 196KB) to estimate overall hand hygiene compliance.
The SA Health Hand hygiene competency tool (PDF) 87KB) has been developed to assess staff competency in carrying out an effective hand hygiene rub or handwash.
Healthcare facilities can track their progress using hand hygiene resources, promotional activities, planning their actions and aiming for improvement and sustainability through:
For further information on education and training, contact SA Health's Infection Control Service.
