--- title: Brace yourself Halifax! 3 days before IPAC-Canada starts! description: Brace yourself Halifax! 3 days before IPAC-Canada starts! --- # [Brace yourself Halifax! 3 days before IPAC-Canada starts!](https://www.viroxanimalhealth.com/resources/talkcleantome/2014/05/brace-yourself-halifax-3-days-before.html) Written by [Nicole Kenny](https://www.viroxanimalhealth.com/resources/author/nicole-kenny) | May 23, 2014 8:22:00 PM Spring is a season many of us look forward to - longer and warmer days, the snow is gone, the birds are back and flowers and trees are budding and blooming!  Allergy sufferers and asthmatics may rue Springs' arrival particularly since this year seems to be incredibly mean to some of us.  But if you're an Infection Preventionist you are probably downright giddy for Spring signifies the arrival of two of the biggest infection prevention and control conferences in North America: IPAC-Canada and APIC.  If you're Canadian, you are probably counting down the hours until you fly off to Halifax to enjoy 5 days of work free, kid free, spouse free educational fun!  If you're like me, you're also probably trying to figure out how to get that last pair of shoes to fit in your suitcase! The theme of this year's IPAC-Canada conference is "[PREVENTION: A Port in Any Storm](http://www.ipac-canada.org/conf/pdf14/IPAC_PreliminaryProgram_May22.pdf)" and from the agenda, promises to cover virtually every topic of interest to IPs.  What I am thoroughly impressed with is the number of Oral and Poster research presentations!  There are [29 Oral presentations](http://www.ipac-canada.org/conf/pdf14/IPAC_PreliminaryProgram_May22.pdf) covering topics of Bugs & Drugs, Quality and Process Improvement, Program Evaluation and Cleaning, Disinfection and Sterilizing.   The Cleaning, Disinfection & Sterilization track covers CPE Contamination of Sinks and Drains, Mobile Equipment Cleaning and the study my research team did on the [interaction between wipe substrates and disinfectant chemistries](https://info.virox.com/is-a-wipe-a-wipe).  I summarized the study in the "[Disinfection - it's more than the juice you use blog](http://talkcleantome.blogspot.ca/2014/04/disinfection-its-more-than-juice-you-use.html)" at the beginning of April. I am truly impressed by the [>190 Research Poster](http://www.ipac-canada.org/conf/pdf14/14_posterPresentations.pdf) Submissions!  I obviously cannot summarize them all, so here are the top 8 that I will most definitely be checking out!  1. **EFFECTS OF DISINFECTANT WIPES ON SENSITIVE HEALTHCARE SURFACES** - concludes that sensitive surfaces present a challenge to disinfection but that there are disinfectants that are effective without causing harm and costly damage. 2. **COMPARISON OF TERMINAL CLEANING OF A MEDICAL SURFACE REPAIR PATCH ON HOSPITAL MATTRESSES** - we know that mattress material is problematic and prone to degradation from disinfectants.  I'm curious to learn more about this patch. 3. **ARE EQUIPMENT DEPOTS THE ANSWER TO QUALITY CONTROL IN CLEANING NON-CRITICAL EQUIPMENT? -** having conducted audits of facilities and seen firsthand that shared equipment is not being cleaned and disinfected as it should this one really piques my interest! 4.** CLEANING OF ENVIRONMENTAL SURFACES IN OUTPATIENT CLINICS IS LESS THAN PERFECT!** - YEP!  I'm certainly interested to learn how they improved outcomes! 5. **RESULTS OF AN IPAC-CANADA MEMBERSHIP ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE NEEDS ASSESSMENT** - I can't wait to hear about this survey! 6. **IF IT'S GREEN, IT'S CLEAN!** - reviews how one facility went about developing a program to clearly identify if patient care equipment was clean or dirty. 7. **TRUE GRIME: OPERATING ROOM CLEANLINESS: BUSTING THE DUST** - reviews how a facility improved their cleaning and disinfection practices with the OR department 8. **AUTOMATED WHEELCHAIR WASHERS: ARE THEY EFFECTIVE FOR CLEANING/SANITIZING COMMODES? INVESTIGATION AND LESSONS LEARNED** - Interesting..with the issues we have in shared equipment not getting cleaned, I would hope that automated washers would be a potential alternative! For those of you attending IPAC-Canada be sure to find me.  I'd love to catch up or meet you for the first time!  I'll be tweeting so follow me @nicolecronkenny.  If you're not attending be sure to follow #IPACCanada2014 to keep up with what is being said!  The conference as I said promises to cover a wide variety of topics - including a full day Disinfection Symposium on my favorite topic of cleaning and disinfection! *Bugging Off! * Nicole   [View full post](https://www.viroxanimalhealth.com/resources/talkcleantome/2014/05/brace-yourself-halifax-3-days-before.html) ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Nicole Kenny" }, "dateModified" : "2019-03-04T15:23:16.811Z", "datePublished" : "2014-05-23T20:22:00Z", "headline" : "Brace yourself Halifax! 3 days before IPAC-Canada starts!", "image" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 60, "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png", "width" : 60 }, "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.viroxanimalhealth.com/resources/talkcleantome/2014/05/brace-yourself-halifax-3-days-before.html", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 60, "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png", "width" : 60 }, "name" : "Virox-Animal-Health-Resources" } } ```