This article was written by Tuuli Metsvaht, Head of the Paediatric Clinic, Tartu University Hospital (Estonia) and Chair of the NeoIPC Clinical Practice Network. It is taken from Penta’s 2023 Annual Social Report.
The NeoIPC Clinical Practice Network (CPN) is a group of healthcare professionals working in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) interested in finding innovative ways to prevent infections in newborn babies. It started as part of the NeoIPC project and has become an online-based, newborn health-focused community of practice, dedicated to addressing critical knowledge gaps in infection prevention and control (IPC) in neonatal care.
The CPN was initially launched during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week in November 2022. Since then, it has grown a lot. We now have 130 members from 86 NICUs in 29 different countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and Australia. Our members include neonatologists, nurses, microbiologists, infection prevention experts and enthusiasts.
The CPN was created because we realised there was a pressing need for an international hub where clinicians and practitioners could informally talk about managing outbreaks in NICUs, discuss implementation of IPC measures and of hospital-acquired infection surveillance, and sharing their experiences. In that sense, the CPN is more than just a regular neonatal society. We’ve built a space where people from different backgrounds can come together to work towards improving standards of care for newborns worldwide.
One important thing we’re doing is creating a comprehensive collection of resources about infection prevention. Drawing on the expertise of our members, we’re gathering recommendations, guidelines, training courses and other useful materials on neonatal IPC, available in different languages. This resource library helps other healthcare professionals find evidence-based IPC recommendations and encourage a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the field.
Looking ahead, we want the CPN to keep growing and make a bigger impact. By leveraging the collective expertise of our members, we hope to improve the standards of care and make sure fewer newborns get sick from infections.
As the Chair of the NeoIPC Clinical Practice Network, I must say I am really proud of how far we’ve come. The CPN shows how people can collaborate and come up with new ideas to protect premature babies in NICUs all over the world.