Step into the role of an IPC lead nurse and work through a real-world ward scenario — from the first early signal to global coordination and recovery. Each scene builds your understanding of how the global response connects to what you do every single day.
You are an IPC lead nurse at a large general hospital. Over the past five days, an unusual cluster of patients on the respiratory ward has developed severe illness — all admitted within a short window, with no obvious link between them. Two of the nurses who cared for them are now feeling unwell too. Your gut says something is off. Your ward manager turns to you: "What should we do?"
That feeling — "this doesn't look right" — is the beginning of outbreak detection. Hospitals are often the first place where an emerging infection becomes visible, precisely because nurses notice when patients are sicker than expected. When cases cluster in a way that breaks the usual pattern, that is called a "signal". Your job is to take it seriously and act — you do not need to wait for certainty.
Your ward is frequently where outbreaks first become visible — before any national system picks them up. The IPC nurse's role is to recognise the signal, escalate, and act — simultaneously, not sequentially. The "no regrets" principle means it is always better to investigate something that turns out to be nothing than to miss the early days of an outbreak. Your report also feeds directly into the wider surveillance system monitoring for exactly these patterns.
The pathogen has now been identified as a novel respiratory virus. National authorities have issued interim guidance. Your hospital director is pushing back on the enhanced measures you are proposing: "We only have a handful of cases. Why are we treating this like a crisis? This feels like an overreaction."
Left uncontrolled, an outbreak follows a bell curve: cases build, peak sharply, then decline. IPC interventions — isolation, enhanced precautions, careful patient flow — work to reduce and delay that peak. This is not about preventing every case; it is about ensuring the peak never exceeds what your ward, your staff, and your hospital can safely absorb. When a hospital is overwhelmed, outcomes worsen for every patient — not only those with the outbreak illness.
The outbreak has now been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by WHO. A junior nurse on your team looks at the news and asks: "What does any of that have to do with us? We're just one ward in one hospital." It is a fair question — and you have a good answer.
The global response and your daily ward work are more closely connected than they appear. Arrange these steps in the correct order to trace how a signal from your ward eventually comes back to you as updated guidance. Drag to reorder.
The correct order is: Your ward report → National surveillance → WHO coordination → International research → Guidance reaches you → You implement it. Your ward is both the starting point of the global signal and the final delivery point of the global response. Accurate, timely reporting from nurses on the ground is the raw material the entire international system depends on. Notice that the loop starts and ends with you.
This preview showcases the first three scenes of an eight-scene simulation. The complete tool — developed for the MSc (Infection Prevention & Control) programme — includes five further interactive scenarios covering the pillars of a coordinated hospital response, translating national guidance to ward level, advanced detection methods, recovery and after-action review, and the broader global collaboration architecture underpinning pandemic preparedness.
Remaining scenes at a glance:
This simulation was developed for the MSc (Infection Prevention & Control) programme at the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, National University of Singapore. For enquiries about the programme or this tool, please contact the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies.