Placement requirements
To ensure commitment to health and safety of all clients in health care settings, all students studying health courses with clinical placements will be required to undertake a number of immunisations. You have a ‘duty of care’ to ensure you minimise the risk to yourself and your clients of acquiring a vaccine preventable disease. For this reason, you are required to undergo the vaccinations prior to attending clinical placement.
Compliance for immunisations is mandatory. Failure to comply with immunisation requirements may delay the completion of your course. It is your responsibility to ensure that the requirements for immunisation have been met.
This information should be compiled in a Vaccination Record Card for Health Care Workers/Students.
We recommend using the UC Medical and Counselling Centre to complete your Vaccination Record Card.
The UC Medical and Counselling Centre are familiar with the immunisation requirements of students, can bulk bill and offer vaccination programs at low cost to students.
Before attending your appointment, please download your immunisation history statement from the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) You can obtain this statement by:
- Creating your own Medicare online account via MyGov, or
- Calling the AIR general enquiries line on 1800 653 80
International students need to apply for an Individual Health Identifier (IHI) so that your immunisations will be uploaded to the AIR. Please apply following the IHI instructions
Additional notes
- A full course of immunisations can take several months to complete and you should advise your GP well in advance prior to commencing clinical placement. It is a requirement that you have commenced all immunisations.
- Many courses involve clinical placements within the first semester of commencement, the Hepatitis B vaccine should be commenced early to ensure full immunisation status prior to clinical placement.
- Diphtheria/Tetanus/Pertussis (dTpa - Adult dose only): Must be this particular immunisation rather than ADT (Adult Diphtheria/Tetanus) and must have been received within the last 10 years to be valid.
- Hepatitis B (PDF, 395KB):
- evidence of age-appropriate course (3 doses as an adult, or refer to the Hep B information sheet) AND blood test (serology) following the immunisations to confirm immunity, OR
- blood test (serology) AND a written statement (NSW Health Appendix 9: Hepatitis B Vaccination Declaration) (PDF, 123KB) * to confirm immunity If you have been immunised previously but cannot obtain immunisation records after all means have been exhausted (e.g. MyGov account (Medicare, eHealth Record), local Council/Health District/Public Health Unit or GP). You must state on the statement that you have tried to contact My Gov account, ACT Health/NSW Health, etc.
- Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR):
- 2 doses, OR
- serology to confirm immunity. (For Rubella serology outcome, if the immunity level transcribed onto a Vaccination Record Card is 40 IU/ml or lower, a copy of the Rubella serology report also needs to be provided.)
- Varicella:
- 2 doses, OR
- serology to confirm immunity, OR
- evidence of 1 dose if vaccinated before 14 years of age.
- For Midwifery students: Hepatitis C and HIV serology obtained in the last 12 months.
- Influenza:
- An annual influenza vaccination is required for placements taking place between 1 June and 30 September each year. This is a mandatory requirement for disciplines indicated so in the pre-placement requirements table above. For other disciplines, this is still a mandatory requirement for NSW Health placement and for any other sites which require it. You will need to carry your evidence of influenza vaccination (i.e. immunisation summary) during your placement. Please note pictures of receipts for the flu vaccine or pictures of vials of flu vaccine do not constitute that it has actually been administered.
- Strains in the flu vaccine are updated each year, therefore you must ask whether you are receiving this year's version of flu vaccine prior to having it administered. Usually, a new flu vaccine for the year is available from about mid-April.
- Students who have had the Northern Hemisphere flu vaccination administered prior to coming to Australia to commence study will be required to have the current Southern Hemisphere version of the flu vaccine, as advised by NSW Health.
- COVID-19: It is mandatory that students receive two (2) or three (3) doses of COVID-19 vaccine (dependent on course requirements) before they commence placement. Health students are prioritised when booking for COVID-19 vaccination over the phone (e.g. If you are in ACT, ring 02 5124 7700).
- Placement providers only accept vaccines that are approved or recognised by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) or recognised for the purpose of travel to Australia by TGA. The list of approved or recognised vaccinations can be found on the TGA website.
- Acceptable evidence of COVID-19 vaccination: Under the Public Order, acceptable evidence means evidence from the Australian Register (AIR). This can be in the form of an online immunisation history statement or digital certificate, showing actual vaccination dates of all vaccines received. Please visit Services Australia for information on how to get proof of vaccinations. If you cannot get a proof online, ring AIR on 1800 653 809 asking for a hard copy statement to be sent to you. This may take about 14 days.
- Alternative documentation should be taken to a GP for assessment and entered into AIR. This only applies to TGA approved vaccines. The AIR certificate would then need to be uploaded on InPlace for verification.
- Students with permanent or temporary contraindications to all approved vaccines can have their medical practitioner complete and sign an immunisation medical exemption form. Please download the ACT Health Covid-19 Contraindication Form or the NSW Health Medical Exemption form, have it completed by an authorised medical professional and upload to InPlace.
*Students only need to complete the Section A of the Hepatitis B Vaccination Declaration form and upload it on InPlace. When the form is sent to NSW Health by the UC Placement team, the NSW Health OASV Assessor will complete the Section B if they are satisfied with the information provided in Section A.
Note on the ACT Health COVID-19 Vaccine Contraindication or Temporary Exemption Form: Sections A and B of the form can only be completed by the following:
- General practice registrar on an approved 3GA training placement
- Paediatrician
- Public health physician
- Infectious disease physician
- Clinical immunologist
- General Practitioner who meets certain criteria:
- Vocationally registered, OR
- A fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), OR
- A fellow of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM).
Some placement providers may require additional immunisations such as Poliomyelitis and Hepatitis A. Placement team will contact students if this applies to them.
If you are a vaccine non-responder, have a medical contraindication to the administration of a vaccine, or infection positive, please complete the following two forms, combine them along with any other relevant documents into one pdf file and upload it on InPlace under the relevant item (e.g. dTpa, HepB, MMR, Varicella, etc.).
