How One Health Care Professional Advanced in the Field with Distance Education

Original Photo by Jacob Johan

Jacquie Sarna, a Public Health professional, is an Access Studies student at UBC and is currently completing the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Certificate program. Jacquie received her Bachelor of Nursing degree from the University of Manitoba in 1976 and subsequently started her career as a Registered Nurse. With extensive experience in the health care field, Jacquie recently started a new position in the Public Health/Communicable Disease Unit, which led her to the Infection Prevention and Control program at UBC.

The IPC is offered by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (formerly the Office of Learning Technology) and the Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Health Care and Epidemiology, in conjunction with the Vancouver Hospital Division of Medical Microbiology and Infection Control. Jacquie shares with us the reason for choosing this program: “I made the choice to enrol in the UBC program as it is entirely online and uses a [WebCT] based format which I was familiar with from the…courses that I had previously completed.” Furthermore, Jacquie noted that her “microbiology course from Nursing was pre-HIV! I needed to update my knowledge.”

The IPC is primarily designed for those working in health care institutions, such as hospitals and long term care facilities. For students like Jacquie with an understanding of the operations of these institutions, the program aptly meets the educational needs of its students while building on their existing skills and knowledge. For individuals with a background in public health, specifically those who have experience dealing with communicable diseases in the community, or for those who are considering a career in the field of infection prevention and control, the IPC is also an applicable and relevant program to pursue.

The certificate program consists of four courses, three of which are offered online: PATH 427: Basic Principles of Infection Prevention and Control, PATH 467: Basics of Medical Microbiology for Infection Control, and PATH 477: Basic Epidemiology for Infection Control. This provides students with scheduling flexibility and the ability to balance their academic, professional and personal lives. With the online courses, students do not have to come to campus. This has allowed out of province students like Jacquie, who resides in Manitoba, to complete the IPC courses. The last required course is PATH 451: Clerkship in Laboratory Medicine and Infection Prevention and Control, and it is a mentored study course that offers practical clinical experience at an approved health care institution.

As mentioned previously, Jacquie is no stranger to online distance education, having previously completed ten online learning modules from the Public Health Agency of Canada prior to the IPC Certificate. With this experience, Jacquie is comfortable with the learning pace provided by online learning and finds that “it is an excellent way to learn [and] discuss.” The structure of the online courses in the IPC program revolves around a problem-based, interactive format that is relevant to the topics covered in the course. Students are able to engage in an interactive learning process through discussion questions, while comprehending the content individually through readings and learning modules. Students are also assigned essay assignments and a final exam.

With three of the four required courses under her belt, Jacquie is near the end of the program. She hopes to complete the last clinical course this fall in Manitoba, once an applicable project is approved by her course leaders. For Jacquie, the distance education experience has allowed her to “[learn] a lot and [she has] thoroughly enjoyed this and the other online courses.”