Hospital and community-based infection control

Abstract

Although nurses have practised as public health professionals for decades, the role of the nurse epidemiologist is not widely recognised. These practitioners have a tiny voice in comparison with hospital-based nurses, which has put them at a dis-advantage in professional terms. This paper explores the similarities between the roles and tasks of the clinically-based infection control practitioner and the nurse epidemiologist in a public health unit. Such professionals, along with infectious disease physicians, epidemiologists and lab-oratory staff, constitute a public health team dedicated to the control of infectious diseases in both health-care establishments and the wider community.