Advanced Infection Prevention Leadership Skills Course

Overview

Advanced Infection Prevention Leadership Skills Course is a one-week course for infection preventionists and healthcare leaders, who leave with an Infection Prevention Leadership Action Plan. The course develops influence without authority, stakeholder engagement, executive communication, multidisciplinary team facilitation, conflict management, behavior change, implementation leadership, data storytelling, escalation, safety culture, and sustained improvement. Agile Leaders Training Center presents infection prevention leadership as coordinated organizational practice.

Who Should Attend

• Teams responsible for leading infection prevention priorities and implementation
• Personnel responsible for surveillance findings, risk communication, and improvement
• Functions responsible for healthcare quality, safety culture, and governance
• Clinical leaders responsible for multidisciplinary practice change
• Supervisors responsible for team performance, escalation, and accountability

The course assumes participants already contribute to infection prevention work and leaves out introductory clinical precautions, technical surveillance instruction, and jurisdiction-specific regulatory advice.

Departments and Industries

The course supports departments that lead infection prevention across healthcare delivery, public health, residential care, and clinical support services.

• Infection prevention and control functions
• Quality, patient safety, and risk departments
• Clinical operations and nursing leadership teams
• Occupational health and workforce safety services
• Residential care, diagnostic, and ambulatory services

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Analyze leadership authority, accountability, and organizational context
• Build stakeholder influence and engagement strategies
• Apply communication, advocacy, and data-storytelling tools
• Use team facilitation and conflict-management methods
• Evaluate behavior-change and implementation leadership choices
• Prioritize escalation, governance, and sustainability actions

Course Agenda

Day 1: Infection Prevention Leadership Context

• APIC Infection Preventionist Competency Model Map
• Leadership Role, Authority, and Accountability Canvas
• IPC Strategic Alignment and Priority Matrix
• Organizational Safety Culture Assessment
• Leadership Strength and Development Profile

Day 2: Stakeholder Influence and Communication

• Stakeholder Influence and Interest Map
• Influence-Without-Authority Strategy Canvas
• Executive Communication Message Architecture
• IPC Advocacy and Resource Case Template
• Communication Channel and Feedback Plan

Day 3: Team Facilitation and Conflict

• Multidisciplinary Team Charter
• Meeting Facilitation and Decision Protocol
• Psychological Safety Conversation Checklist
• Conflict Diagnosis and Response Matrix
• Accountability and Follow-Through Board

Day 4: Change, Data, and Implementation

• WHO Multimodal Implementation Strategy Map
• Behavior-Change Barrier and Enabler Analysis
• IPC Data Storytelling Narrative Structure
• Implementation Readiness and Risk Register
• Escalation, Governance, and Sustainability Pathway

Day 5: Infection Prevention Leadership Practice

• Suggested Exercise: Stakeholder Influence Scenario
• Suggested Exercise: Executive Data Briefing
• Suggested Exercise: Team Conflict Facilitation
• Suggested Exercise: Implementation and Escalation Decision
• Capstone Exercise: Infection Prevention Leadership Action Plan

Practical Exercises

The course uses suggested activities with fictional hospital, ambulatory, residential-care, and diagnostic-service scenarios.

• Suggested activity: map formal authority, informal influence, stakeholder interests, and engagement choices.
• Suggested activity: turn surveillance and performance evidence into an executive decision narrative.
• Suggested activity: facilitate a multidisciplinary disagreement and document accountability decisions.
• Suggested activity: build an implementation pathway with behavior, governance, escalation, and sustainability controls.

FAQs

Who suits infection prevention leadership skills training, and what does it assume?

Infection preventionists, quality personnel, clinical leaders, and supervisors suit the course; it assumes practical involvement in IPC priorities, teams, data, or improvement.

How does infection prevention leadership differ from technical infection control training?

Infection prevention leadership develops influence, communication, facilitation, change, governance, and implementation skills rather than teaching clinical precautions or surveillance methods.

How can infection preventionists influence without formal authority?

Infection preventionists can influence without formal authority by mapping interests, framing evidence around shared priorities, selecting credible messengers, creating participation, and documenting decisions and accountability.

How does data storytelling support infection prevention leadership?

Data storytelling connects infection risks, operational consequences, stakeholder concerns, and a clear decision request so leaders can act on surveillance and performance evidence.

How can infection prevention improvement be sustained?

Infection prevention improvement is sustained through assigned ownership, workflow integration, feedback, visible measures, escalation triggers, leadership review, and adaptation when barriers change.

Conclusion

Participants leave with an Infection Prevention Leadership Action Plan combining influence, communication, team, change, data, implementation, governance, and sustainability tools. The plan turns IPC evidence into coordinated leadership decisions. It helps participants align stakeholders, guide teams, escalate risks, and maintain improvement work.