For several years before 1979 infection control nurses (we weren't called practitioners in those days) were meeting monthly for lunch and to share ideas. There were 9 of us: Fran Jones from St Mary's, Nancy Dickerson from FS, Jo Thress from PW, Linda Gray from UT, Margaret Cody from Baptist, Mary Sue Purkey from Morristown-Hamblen, Phyllis Johnson from Jefferson City, Mare' Enix from Methodist in Oak Ridge and Joan Boling from Children's.
In 1981 we officially became an APIC chapter called APIC Smoky Mt and in 1982 along with the World's Fair we held our first Educational Conference, an activity which has continued until today.
From the original group of 9 our group has expanded to over 50 and has members from Upper East TN, as far south as Athens and as far west as Crossville. We have members from acute care, long term care, employee health, public health, residential and rehab facilities, home health and the health care product industry.
We are in the process of developing a web site and are constantly looking for more projects where we can spread the word of infection prevention and control to the health care groups as well as to the community.
