Highlights
- •Less than 50% of public health degrees in Australia and New Zealand offer any IPC content as core or elective subjects.
- •Public health tertiary education in Australia and New Zealand is deficient in IPC skills and knowledge.
- •Mandatory IPC content within Australian and New Zealand public health programs is needed.
- •This report is the first of its kind to conduct such an audit of IPC content in public health education.
Abstract
Background
To describe and analyse the infection prevention and control (IPC) curricula within
Public Health degrees across Australian and New Zealand Universities and identify
foundational IPC knowledge deficits.
Methods
A cross-sectional study of public health and related programs across tertiary education
institutions within Australia and New Zealand was conducted to comprehensively illustrate
the current inclusion of IPC core and elective courses and identify areas of IPC content
deficit.
Results
Australian (n = 32) and New Zealand (n = 9) universities were audited, consisting
of 217 public health/public health related degrees within Australia and 45 within
New Zealand. Within Australia 41% of public health degrees and 49% in New Zealand
did not offer any IPC content as core or elective subjects.
Conclusions
Public health tertiary education in Australia and New Zealand is lacking in equipping
and imbedding IPC skills and knowledge in public health graduates. This highlights
the need for a framework guiding mandatory IPC content within Australian and New Zealand
public health programs.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 28, 2022
Accepted:
September 6,
2022
Received in revised form:
August 22,
2022
Received:
May 30,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
