About Project Firstline

Key points

  • Project Firstline is CDC’s national training collaborative for healthcare infection control.
  • Project Firstline is for all healthcare workers.
  • Project Firstline offers a variety of infection control educational resources. These resources meet the diverse needs and learning preferences of the healthcare and public health workforce.
Welcome to Project Firstline, CDC's National Training Collaborative for Healthcare Infection Control

Project Firstline overview

CDC launched Project Firstline in October 2020 to address longstanding gaps in infection control knowledge and practice in U.S. healthcare settings. As a collaborative, Project Firstline works with a diverse partner network to develop content that helps healthcare workers understand, think critically about and apply infection control actions.

Project Firstline offers easy-to-use, accurate and free infection control training resources in multiple formats to align with healthcare workers' learning needs and preferences. By meeting healthcare workers where they are, Project Firstline supports frontline healthcare workers in better understanding and applying infection control as part of their role.

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Who it's for

  • Allied health professionals
  • Certified nursing assistants (CNAs)
  • Environmental services (EVS) technicians
  • Nurses
  • Physicians
  • Other frontline staff

Why it's important

Infection control in health care is more than policies and procedures. It’s an essential part of caring for and protecting patients. All healthcare workers, regardless of role or previous training, deserve access to infection control information they can understand and easily incorporate into their day.

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Success story

As of December 2023, Project Firstline and its partners have:

  • Developed more than 900 educational products and training materials on healthcare infection control
  • Hosted more than 2,400 educational events, reaching approximately 165,000 healthcare workers
  • Received more than 1.7 million website views
  • Received more than 119 million impressions through organic and paid digital media

Program priorities

Listen to healthcare workers

  • Develop resources with healthcare workers, specifically for healthcare workers, based on findings from formative research.

Appreciate the value of every healthcare worker and the role they play in infection control

  • Make content for all healthcare workers, regardless of previous training or background knowledge.

Recognize healthcare worker’s lived experiences

  • Design and tailor bite-sized content for practice and on-the-go use during the workday.

Meet healthcare workers where they are

  • Connect with internal motivations and goals.
  • Use existing strengths and knowledge sources.
  • Teach the "why" behind infection control recommendations as much as the "what" and "how."

Commit to healthcare equity

  • Reach healthcare workers from racial and ethnic minority groups through their preferred channels.
  • Translate materials into languages other than English.

Funded partners

Project Firstline partners regularly host trainings and events, create educational tools, publish resources and amplify existing CDC content.

Partner organizations in healthcare, public health, and academia include:

State, local, and territorial health department partners include:

Health departments from all 50 states, District of Columbia, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles County, New York City, Philadelphia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, and Palau.

Get involved

Resources

Project Firstline’s training products include bite-sized social media assets, interactive scenarios, toolkits for those interested in hosting their own infection control trainings, and more.

Help spread the word using Project Firstline promotional materials.

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Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)