UWindsor Annual Report 2007/2008

A University of Windsor Faculty of Nursing Associate Professor was selected to chair a committee to ensure that the region is prepared to deal with any potential disease pandemic.

Dr. Christine Thrasher will chair a 15-member committee of infection control experts guiding the Erie-St. Clair Regional Infection Control Network. The committee’s mandate is to maximize co-ordination and integration of activities related to the prevention, surveillance and control of infectious diseases across all healthcare sectors and for all healthcare providers in the region.

“I’m not there as the infection control expert,” she said. “My role is to remove barriers and help the committee do its work.” Thrasher said she hopes the committee can implement provincial guidelines for reducing the spread of infectious diseases on both an organizational and grassroots level.

The network, established in November by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, will enable organizations to:

• Consistently apply infection control measures;

• Better react to future infection control threats;

• Increase access to expertise and resources;

• Harmonize policies, procedures and standards regarding infection control, and

• Develop effective and timely communications systems.

Thrasher brings her experience as co-ordinator of UWindsor’s Nurse Practitioner program and 11 years of teaching experience to her new position. She was a member of the first Ministry of Health and Long Term Care committee to develop bodily fluid precaution guidelines in the 1980s, shortly after the discovery of the AIDS virus. Thrasher is also on the board of directors of the Windsor Family Health Team, which has a mandate to try to keep area people healthy, reduce wait times and provide better access to doctors and nurses.