Between October 18–21, this website will move to a new web address (from health.gov to odphp.health.gov). During that time, some functions might not work as expected. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we’re working to make this transition as smooth as possible.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Education Access and Quality

Medical Education

“I want to find up-to-date resources that will give my students practical experience for addressing HAIs in their future careers as health care administrators.”

Creating an effective curriculum requires forward thinking to anticipate what skills and concepts students will need in their careers. This example shows how Evidence-Based Resources (EBRs) can prepare health care administration students for addressing the real-world challenge of health care-associated infections (HAIs).

1. Identify the need.

HAIs are a serious public health issue in hospitals and other medical facilities. The health care administration students you work with need evidence-based information about HAIs — including how to systematically prevent them.

2. See how the need aligns with national goals.

Reducing the rate of HAIs at individual medical facilities is directly tied to achieving Healthy People 2030 objectives at the national level. Type “health care-associated infections” in the search bar to find objectives related to reducing the rate of HAIs across the country.

3. Explore EBRs related to your goals.

From an objective’s overview page, find related EBRs by choosing the Evidence-Based Resources tab in the left-hand navigation menu. Look for EBRs that you can incorporate into class assignments related to HAIs.

4. Integrate EBRs into students’ work.

The EBRs you found can serve as pre-reading materials for a lecture or as the basis of an assignment. For example, you could ask your students to develop an intervention for reducing HAIs at a hospital system based on the techniques laid out in an EBR.

5. Have students track objectives.

Show students how to use Healthy People data tools to track progress toward targets for objectives related to HAIs. Explain how they could use Healthy People 2030 objective data as a benchmark to measure the progress of their proposed interventions. And show them how to use Healthy People 2030 population data to track disparities across populations. Students can even set up custom lists to track specific 2030 objectives.