Infection Prevention for Vulnerable Patients

Prevention of infection in the vulnerable patient is an area of unmet educational need and, considering the current COVID-19 pandemic, has become even more important.

This two-week infection control course investigates a wide range of patients with infectious diseases in a variety of locations and situations.

You’ll begin the course by learning what it means to call a patient ‘vulnerable’, and which kind of patients this refers to.

You’ll then explore how to identify the unmet needs of vulnerable patients and how you can help combat this within your healthcare practice.

Using real-life case studies, you’ll examine topics like care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and how homelessness, mental illness, and poverty can lead to vulnerability.

You’ll also explore the different ways a patient might be classed as vulnerable and the problems faced in their treatment.

Reflecting on your own personal experiences in dealing with vulnerable patients, you’ll decipher how this could be improved.

You’ll then study the health of migrants and refugees and develop your understanding of the legal and ethical responsibilities with regards to these types of patients.

On the final section of the course, you’ll examine religious and cultural differences and how these must be navigated in patient care.

Throughout the course, you’ll be learning from experts at the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC), an inter-professional organisation with 50 years of experience in education, research and leadership.