Infection prevention and control and hand hygiene eLearning

This module provides information on hand hygiene for clinical healthcare workers, including student healthcare workers. 

Clinical healthcare workers include doctors, nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, paramedics, all student health practitioners and anyone providing physical care to patients and residents in a healthcare organisation such as personal care attendants. 

This module provides information on hand hygiene for non-clinical healthcare workers. 

Non-clinical healthcare workers include clerical and administration, housekeeping, catering, engineering, sterilisation services, patient transport/ward orderly services, social and spiritual support, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison officers, volunteers, and laboratory staff. 

This module provides hand hygiene information for dental health professionals and students.

Dental healthcare workers include:

• Dental practitioners, including dentists, dental hygienists, dental prosthetists, dental therapists, oral health therapists and dental specialists
• Dental assistants, receptionists, practice managers and other oral healthcare workers who support the provision of dental care, dental technicians
• Dental students and educators.

This module provides information on prevention of hand dermatitis in healthcare workers and what to do if dermatitis does develop. The module was developed by the Occupational Dermatology Research and Education Centre, at the Skin & Cancer Foundation, Melbourne.

This training pathway is for healthcare workers who want to become a Hand Hygiene Auditor. For more information, see Hand Hygiene Auditor Training.

Existing auditors do not need to complete this training pathway.

This module is also for existing hand hygiene auditors who need refresher training.

This training pathway is for Hand Hygiene Auditors who want to become a Hand Hygiene Auditor Educator. For more information, see Hand Hygiene Auditor Educator Training.

This training pathway is for Hand Hygiene Auditor Educators whose educator status has lapsed.

From 2 January 2024, Gold Standard Auditors (GSAs) who did not successfully complete the GSA to HAE Validation Training Pathway will need to complete the Hand Hygiene Auditor Educator Lapsed Pathway to become a HAE.

This module is for existing HAEs who need refresher training.

This assessment is the new annual revalidation for general auditors, Hand Hygiene Auditors, and lapsed auditors. This assessment is also part of the Hand Hygiene Auditor (HA) Training Pathway.

Provides an understanding of the basic principles of infection prevention and control. Content includes healthcare-associated infections, colonisation and infection, standard precautions, transmission-based precautions, use and management of invasive devices and antimicrobial stewardship.

Provides an understanding of risk management systems and the use of the hierarchy of controls in infection prevention and control to help minimise the risk of infection in healthcare settings.

Provides an understanding of basic microbiology and the key infectious agents involved in causing infections and disease in health care.

Provides an understanding of the role of environmental cleaning in reducing the transmission of infectious agents, risk assessment in environmental cleaning, environmental cleaning processes and product selection, safe linen and waste management, cleaning programs and auditing environmental cleaning.

This module is also suitable for cleaning staff and cleaning supervisors. 

Provides an understanding of the basic principles required to assess, prevent, manage, and follow up healthcare workers who are occupationally exposed to blood/body fluids and infectious agents.

Provides an understanding of surveillance in infection prevention and control, components of an infection surveillance program, the national systems for infection surveillance, and quality improvement in infection prevention and control.

Provides an understanding of the role of epidemiology in infection prevention and control, using epidemiological methods to describe the amount of disease in a population, using epidemiological methods to identify outbreaks, the key aspects of outbreak prevention and control plans, the formation of outbreak management teams, outbreak management strategies, and the elements of an outbreak response.

Provides an understanding of the basic principles of health workforce screening and immunisation for vaccine-preventable diseases, governance systems to support health workforce screening and immunisation programs, as well as the strategies to assess, prevent and manage the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases.

This module is also suitable for staff health practitioners.

Provides an understanding of the requirements of the NSQHS Standards for reusable medical devices, the three main reprocessing methods, the factors that influence the effectiveness of reprocessing, and how to manage risks associated with reprocessing.

Provides an understanding of the infection risks associated with building works, repairs, and ongoing maintenance in a healthcare organisation and how these risks can be managed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

Note: This module will be updated 2023–24 in line with the updated Australasian Health Facility Guidelines.