Objective: To describe the development, pilot testing and evaluation of face-to-face and online educational training packages for healthcare staff undertaking point prevalence surveys (PPS) of healthcare-associated urinary tract infections (HAUTIs) in Australian hospitals and aged care facilities.

Methods: The study involved two phases. A face-to-face educational training package was developed and used in Phase I of the HAUTI PPS data collection conducted in six hospitals. In Phase II, the training package was expanded and modified for online use by healthcare staff in 82 hospitals and 17 aged care facilities. Ten staff evaluated the face-to-face training package in Phase I. For Phase II, 38 staff evaluated the online training package. After each phase, staff completed an online evaluation survey about the usefulness of the training package and ease of data collection.

Results: For Phase I, usefulness of the training package was rated highly (100%, n = 10) with all respondents rating the training useful in preparing for data collection. Staff in Phase II also reported the online training useful in preparing for data collection and was rated very useful by 21% (n = 8) of respondents and useful by 66% (n = 25). Some respondents (Phase I, n = 4 and Phase II, n = 25) provided small amount of text data that was triangulated with quantitative data. Qualitative feedback reinforced quantitative ranking of usefulness of the training package.

Conclusion: The training packages were sufficient to train healthcare staff with varying levels of knowledge and skills in undertaking HAUTI PPS in hospitals and/or aged care facilities.