The Northeast Regional Urgent Care Association (NERUCA) has been awarded grant funding through the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) to expand infection prevention and control education and resources for the urgent care community as part of CDC's Project Firstline initiative.
CDC Project Firstline is a national infection control training collaborative designed to provide healthcare workers with practical, accessible infection prevention and control education that can be applied in everyday healthcare settings.
Through this grant-funded initiative, NERUCA is developing programming specifically tailored to the needs and realities of urgent care. The project is focused on making infection prevention education practical, engaging, and accessible to clinicians and other healthcare professionals working in fast-paced ambulatory environments.
The initiative includes a combination of educational opportunities and resources, including webinars, self-paced learning, microlearning content, practical toolkits, interactive workshops, and in-person education. Topics are informed by the needs of the urgent care community and include infection prevention fundamentals, emerging infectious diseases, outbreak response, and emergency preparedness.
As part of the project, NERUCA is also building a centralized collection of infection prevention resources that will allow urgent care professionals to access training and practical tools on demand.
The initiative builds upon NERUCA's ongoing work at the intersection of urgent care and public health and creates additional opportunities to connect urgent care organizations with timely infection prevention guidance, subject matter experts, and resources designed for their practice environment.
By bringing Project Firstline education directly to the urgent care community, NERUCA aims to strengthen infection prevention knowledge, support preparedness, and help healthcare teams confidently apply infection control principles in their everyday work.
Funding acknowledgment: This initiative is supported through grant funding from the New York State Department of Health as part of CDC's Project Firstline, a national collaborative focused on infection prevention and control education for the healthcare workforce.