What Guidelines and Resources Does SHEA Offer for Infection Prevention?

SHEA (the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, shea-online.org) offers infection prevention guidance through several channels: the Compendium, Pocket Guidelines (available in print and as a digital subscription), topic-based resource pages, and training courses. These are aimed at healthcare epidemiologists, infection preventionists, and antimicrobial stewardship professionals. Some materials are tied to membership or subscription access, so check each item before assuming it is free.

Core guideline publications

Compendium

The Compendium is SHEA's flagship guidance product for infection prevention practice. On the site it appears both as a resource area and as a podcast series, which suggests the content is substantial enough to support ongoing discussion and updates.

Pocket Guidelines

SHEA offers Pocket Guidelines in two formats:

• Pocket Guidelines Digital Subscription — a subscription-based digital version
• SHEA Guidelines Print Bundle — a physical bundle of guidelines

If you need quick reference material at the point of care, the pocket format is the most direct option. The digital version carries a subscription signal, so verify current access terms on the site.

Topic-based resource areas

SHEA organizes resources around specific program and practice areas rather than only by publication type. The resource areas listed include:

These pages are the starting point if your question is "how do I build or improve a program" rather than "what does the guideline say."

Education and training

SHEA pairs its guidelines with structured learning:

• SHEA LearningCE — continuing education offerings
• Penicillin Allergy Management — an interactive course covering allergy history taking, risk assessment using validated instruments, penicillin allergy testing, and delabeling
• SHEA Spring — a conference for healthcare epidemiology, infection prevention, and antimicrobial stewardship professionals, with expert-led sessions, workshops, and training courses
• IDWeek — the joint annual meeting of IDSA, SHEA, HIVMA, and PIDS

The penicillin allergy course is a concrete example of SHEA translating a stewardship topic into a step-by-step training product, which is useful if you need to train staff on delabeling rather than just read a guideline.

How to decide what to use

• Need a quick bedside or meeting reference: Pocket Guidelines (digital subscription or print bundle).
• Need comprehensive practice guidance: the Compendium.
• Need to stand up or strengthen a program: the topic resource pages for Infection Prevention Programs, Antimicrobial Stewardship, or Diagnostic Stewardship.
• Need to prepare for or respond to an outbreak: the Outbreak Preparedness and Response resources.
• Need training or CE: SHEA LearningCE, the penicillin allergy course, SHEA Spring, or IDWeek.
• Need to make the case internally: SHEA has published a resource on building the business case for diagnostic stewardship, which is relevant if you need justification for a program investment.

Access notes

SHEA is a professional society, and the site references membership, login, and a store. The Pocket Guidelines digital version is explicitly described as a subscription. Pricing details and login requirements are not specified in the available site information, so confirm access terms directly on shea-online.org before planning around any specific resource.