As part of your training to become a medical professional, it is important that you learn a few things about preventing infection – both in order to protect yourself and to prevent the spread of infectious disease in the workplace.
Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) service
A number of infectious diseases could have specific consequences for students and interns working in hospitals. A distinction can be made here between the risk of getting the disease (through contact with contaminated material) and the risk of spreading the disease (healthcare staff members as carriers of disease infecting patients). In order to prevent the spread of infectious disease, it is important that all interns who show any signs of infection report to the VUmc Health at Work team or to their supervisor or placement supervisor. Particularly when working in high-risk departments the utmost vigilance is required.
Contact details Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) service, location VUmc
Room ZH -1D 161 (University General Practice entrance), left reception desk. Tel: 020 4441977, open daily from 8.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
Guidelines
In the document ‘Preventing infection in medical school’ you will find the guidelines and most relevant information about how to prevent infection (only available in Dutch).
Vaccinations
HSE service also provides vaccinations for hepatitis B at the start of your programme or during your programme. For internships abroad or travel abroad it is important that you also read the information sheet ‘Safety and health’ in addition to the document mentioned above (only available in Dutch). There are strict rules about vaccination, particularly for MRSA and TB.
Accidents involving jabs, cuts or splashes
- For accidents involving jabs, cuts or splashes at VUmc, the following protocol applies: Puncture accident instructions.
- If you are doing an internship at a different institution than VUmc, inform yourself at the start of your internship about the local protocol for jab, cut and splash accidents.
You can contact the student advisors for more information.