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Unit of study_
PUBH5421: Infection Prevention in Healthcare
2021 unit information
This unit will provide students with an understanding of the individual and societal risks of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and the rationale for, and barriers to, their prevention and control (PC). A basic understanding of medical microbiology and communicable disease epidemiology will be assumed. The unit will cover such important concepts as: introduction to healthcare associated infections (what they are, why they are important; fundamentals of infection prevention and control); how infections are transmitted and how can we interrupt this transmission?; hand hygiene theory, practice and evidence; outbreaks, methods to investigate outbreaks, including strain typing and whole genome sequencing, and to contain them; rationales and strategies for implementation of HAI-related policies; antimicrobial stewardship and its importance in the development of multi-drug resistant organisms; and challenges faced with management of emerging infectious diseases and high-consequence infections. Attendance, in person, at workshops is strongly recommended, to enable participation in discussions. However, lectures will be recorded and available online after the workshops. Students who are unable to attend some or all of workshop sessions can view them, but generally not the associated discussions, online. Assessments are online. Students not attending face-to-face teaching will be expected to participate in online discussion.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Public Health
| Code | PUBH5421 |
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| Academic unit | Public Health |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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Students are assumed to have a basic understanding of medical microbiology, epidemiology, and general infectious diseases. |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Define and describe contemporary healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and their associated risk factors.
- LO2. Describe the principles of infection prevention and control, and explore major barriers to optimal implementation strategies to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections.
- LO3. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the major microbial causes of HAIs, including modes of transmission and organism-specific risk factors and preventive strategies.
- LO4. Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of, and skills in, standard and transmission-based precautions and their use to prevent and control HAIs.
- LO5. Design and critique protocols for the investigation into the causes and sources of HAI outbreaks and evaluate interventions designed to reduce the incidence of HAIs.
- LO6. Critique factors contributing to the spread of communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance in healthcare and effective contemporary strategies for prevention and containment.
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
There are no availabilities for this year.
Modes of attendance (MoA)
This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.
