Long-term care facilities in the context of COVID-19

Course information

This course is also available in the following languages:

Bahasa Indonesia - Nederlands - македонски - Shqip - français - Russian - Українська

Overview: The COVID-19 pandemic affects older people disproportionately, especially those living in long-term care facilities (LTCF) with significant impact on mortality and morbidity. Concerted action is needed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 by enhancing infection prevention and control (IPC) measures within LTCF. In many countries, long-term care facilities have weak IPC systems and training in place and staff lack the access to information on limiting transmission in the context of COVID-19. Strengthening IPC practice is crucial to prevent spread of COVID-19. The COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Communication Toolkit for Long-Term Care Facilities provides simple and actionable visuals for staff, residents and visitors with key IPC messages. The COVID-19 Preparedness Checklist is a tool consisting of several elements that are crucial for preparing LTCF for COVID-19. It can be used by facility administrators, IPC focal points or staff, internal or external professionals.

This course consists of 4 modules that address infection prevention and control measures to support LTCF in the context of COVID-19.

Learning objectives: By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• Describe infection prevention and control principles and practices relevant to long-term care facilities for patient and staff safety during COVID-19

• Apply the COVID-19 Long-term Care Facility Checklist to their place of work

• Identify practices to safely manage long-term care facility residents during COVID-19

• Understand how to support themselves and each other as staff of long-term care facilities during COVID-19

Course duration: Approximately 2 hours.

Certificates: A Record of Achievement will be available to participants who score at least 80% of the total points available across all of the quizzes. Participants who receive a Record of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.

Course contents

• Module 1: COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control Package for Long-Term Care Facilities:

  By the end of this module, you should be able to: describe how infectious diseases can be spread; explain how to prevent spread of infectious diseases; describe how COVID-19 is spread; explain how to prevent the spread of COVID-19

• Module 2: Performing the COVID-19 Preparedness Checklist for Long-Term Care Facilities:

  By the end of this module, you should be able to: understand the purpose of the preparedness checklist; describe the process for use the checklist; use the checklist in the long-term care facility; identify and prioritise items that need to be addressed

• Module 3: Caring for Residents of Long-Term Care Facilities during COVID-19:

  By the end of this module, you should be able to: understand how to manage the care of residents to prevent spread of COVID-19; understand how to manage the long-term care facility environment to prevent spread of COVID-19; describe how to prevent visitors spreading COVID-19 in long-term care facilities

• Module 4: Protection and Support of Staff of Long-Term Care Facilities during COVID-19:

  By the end of this module, you should be able to: describe how you can protect yourself in the workplace from COVID-19; identify how to protect yourself outside of the workplace; understand your options to cope with stress