Curriculum and Competency Guidelines for the Advanced Care Practitioner in Infectious Disease.

BACKGROUND: Changes in the health care delivery system have altered the way internal medicine (IM) is practiced, with inclusion of subspecialty advanced care practitioners (ACPs) as vital members of the health care team.

METHODS: ACPs are provided the clinical settings and educational resources within an academic center to become competent in recognizing and managing common and complicated infectious diseases (ID). The ID ACP will be given progressive responsibility with expectations for achievement of milestones as they develop into competent practitioners. We seek to ensure quality, cost-effective, and comprehensive patient-centered care on the ID service in the inpatient and ambulatory settings in compliance with national standards and scope of practice recommendations and regulations.

RESULTS: In recognition of the expanding role of ACPs, we developed a curriculum and guidelines in the subspecialty of ID.

CONCLUSIONS: Our proposal greatly adds to the available literature for ACPs to provide the full spectrum of ID practice.