Standards and guidance for infection prevention

KATE WOODHEAD RGN DMS looks at two recent reports that focus on the increasing framework for infection prevention and control practice. She highlights the importance of these documents to safe patient care.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a quality standard for Infection Prevention and epic3 has provided pages of updated evidence-based guidance for a host of normal practices for infection prevention in both acute and community care. 

The recently published NICE Guidance¹ gives some clinical links into standards in the NHS Outcomes Framework and epic3² gives grounded evidence for everyday practice. They should both be read by all practitioners.