CBIC certification covering infection prevention and control practice across healthcare settings.
Who it's for
Infection preventionists and other healthcare professionals responsible for infection prevention and control programs — CBIC frames CIC as validating expertise and leadership in infection prevention, epidemiology, surveillance, and regulatory compliance, and notes it's a legitimate entry pathway into IP even for candidates coming from non-clinical or IP-adjacent backgrounds.
What's covered
- Identification of infectious disease processes
- Surveillance and epidemiologic investigation
- Preventing/controlling transmission of infectious agents
- Employee and occupational health
- Management and communication
- Education and research
What to expect
The exam mixes scenario/vignette-based questions (an outbreak investigation, an attack-rate calculation, a device-associated infection risk scenario) with more direct recall items, based on a practice analysis survey of working infection preventionists that CBIC repeats every 4–5 years. As of January 2025, the exam is two 90-minute sections (150 questions, 135 scored) with forward-only navigation.
How to prepare
CBIC publishes a free Candidate Handbook and Examination Content Outline, plus an official CIC Practice Test (available in English and Spanish) and a retired-questions sample handout. CBIC does not endorse third-party review courses; it points candidates instead to core reference texts — the APIC Text Online, Fundamental Statistics & Epidemiology in Infection Prevention, The Infection Preventionist's Guide to the Lab, and Ready Reference for Microbes — as the basis for exam content. No official study-hours timeline is published.
