Abstract
<h3>Background</h3> In recent years, the problem of infectious diseases has become global. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the competencies among four career stages which were novice, competent, proficient, and expert between the United States (US) and Japan for the future international collaborations and improvement of quality of the Japanese infection preventionists (IPs). <h3>Methods</h3> We developed a self-administrated questionnaire of IP competencies comprised six competency areas and 138 behavioral characteristics. A Web survey was conducted on the Japanese IPs listed from the Japanese Nurses Association's website and the US IPs through the mailing list of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. The survey was conducted with an approval from the Research Ethics Committee to which the researcher belongs. <h3>Results</h3> The data of 587 Japanese IPs and 157 US IPs were analyzed. The medians (IQR) of percentage of overall competency scores were 71.2 (15.8) % for the Japanese, 71.2 (22.1) % for the US IPs (p =.414). The mean scores of each competency area increased statistically significantly as the career stage increased (US p < 0.01; Japanese p < 0.001). A two-way ANOVA showed that there was a statistically significant interaction between the effects of country and career stages on competency score(p=0.006). Except novice stage, the mean scores of Education and Research competency area of the US IPs were statistically significantly higher than those of the Japanese IPs (p < 0.05). <h3>Conclusions</h3> In our knowledge, this was the first study to compare the IPs competency between the US and Japan. There were no differences in overall competencies between the US and Japan, but differences were identified at each career stage. Especially, in Education and Research area, it is necessary to develop educational programs for competencies of the Japanese IPs in the future.
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