Please ensure that this section is read and understood. Your immunisation status may affect your placement in a Queensland Health facility.
Queensland Health is committed to providing an environment that is as safe as possible for patients and health care workers. Communicable (infectious) diseases are a risk to both patients and staff of health care establishments, and the risk may be heightened during certain procedures. Students therefore need to be aware of and comply with, Queensland Health policy and guidelines related to infection control to ensure their own personal safety and that of patients and staff.
Students should familiarise themselves with the Queensland Health Infection Control Guidelines prior to their first clinical placement, in particular the sections that relate to Standard Precautions and Employee Health, including immunisation.
It is your responsibility to provide Queensland Health with evidence of your immunisation status. It is mandatory that students attending placement in a Queensland Health facility are immunised against Hepatitis B. It is strongly recommended that students are also immunised against Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR vaccine), Tuberculosis, Varicella Zoster virus (chickenpox), and Pertussis (whooping cough).
Students who are HIV, HBV and/or HVC positive are requested to self disclose their status in the interest of health, safety and duty of care (to both student and client). A student who refuses to be immunised against HBV or who refuses to disclose their HIV, HBV or HCV status will be automatically deemed a non-responder and will not be allowed to undertake placement where exposure prone procedures may occur. It will be the student’s university’s responsibility to determine if proceeding with this placement will allow for learning objectives to be met.
During placements, students may be exposed to blood and body fluids whether as a result of chance, accident or inexpertness. Therefore, actions must be taken to reduce the risk of disease transmission as much as possible.
Queensland Health may restrict or deny access to their facilities to a student who does not meet Queensland Health’s immunisation and infection control requirements.
To assist staff of health care establishments to eliminate or minimise this risk, the Communicable Diseases Unit developed the Queensland Health Infection Control website.The website includes links to the Queensland Health Infection Control Guidelines, Queensland Health Capital Works Guidelines and Public Health Fact Sheets.
Within health care facilities, Infection Control Programs aim to promote the use of strategies and procedures to prevent or minimise the spread of infection.
Standard precautions such as
These precautions form the basis for the prevention and control of infection in healthcare settings. Screening for evidence of immunity (eg. hepatitis B), instituting preventative measures, and managing situations involving occupational exposure to infectious diseases are also key components of an Infection Control Program.
Blood borne viruses continue to pose considerable risk to health care workers in the context of significant occupational body fluid exposures. Presently, the estimated risk for healthcare workers who sustain a needlestick injury from a source infected with a blood borne pathogen is 6-30% for hepatitis B (HBV), 0.5-2% for hepatitis C (HCV), and 0.3% for HIV. At this time, of the blood borne pathogens, hepatitis B is the only virus for which immunisation is available.
For further information:
Queensland Health Infection Control Website
Queensland Health General Information Fact Sheet: HIV and AIDS
Queensland Health General Information Fact Sheet: Hepatitis B
Queensland Health General Information Fact Sheet: Hepatitis C
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