About the Immunisation programme

Immunisation is a highly successful public health intervention protecting individuals across the life course and saving thousands of lives every year. To ensure ongoing public confidence in vaccines and a high vaccine uptake, it is vital that all those who advise on and/or administer immunisations are confident, knowledgeable and up to date. This elearning programme has therefore been designed in line with the recommendations made in the Public Health England (PHE) National Minimum Standards and Core Curriculum for Immunisation Training. It comprehensively covers the core areas of immunisation with which healthcare practitioners need to be familiar to deliver immunisations safely and effectively and to answer parents’/patients’ questions confidently and accurately.

Healthcare practitioners from a wide diversity of professional backgrounds now give immunisations in many different settings and service areas, this programme has therefore been designed to be relevant to all healthcare practitioners with a role in immunisation whether they advise on or deliver immunisations. Most of the information in the programme is relevant for those involved in the immunisation programme in all the UK nations. However, those undertaking the programme in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales should be aware that some details, such as the ordering and reporting of vaccines given etc., may be different.

This programme consists of seven knowledge sessions with accompanying assessments. It is recommended that those new to immunisation complete all seven sessions. Those with prior knowledge and experience in immunisation may wish to read through the relevant knowledge sessions for refresher training or undertake the assessment sessions to check on their knowledge. Learners may also wish to only undertake the sessions relevant to their role.

On completion of the knowledge sessions and assessments, users can print a certificate as evidence of the sessions undertaken. A period of supervised practice to allow acquisition and observation of clinical skills and application of knowledge to practice for practitioners new to immunisation is also recommended, as is the completion of an immunisation competency checklist.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the following people who provided input into the development of the sessions:

• Jane Chiodini – Travel Health Specialist Nurse
• Christopher Cox –  Solicitor Director of Membership Relations, Royal College of Nursing​
• Lucy Jessop – Consultant in Health Protection, Health Protection Agency Northern Ireland
• Sarah Lang – Freelance Immunisation Nurse Specialist and Travel Health Educator
• Lesley McFarlane –  Screening and Immunisation Coordinator, NHS England Midlands and East (Central Midlands) North and Central Public Health Team.
• Clare Powell – Specialist Nurse – Immunisation, Vaccine Preventable Disease Programme, Public Health Wales
• NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service team

Viv Hallows and the staff at Ellesmere Medical Practice, Cheadle Heath, Manchester for providing a location for the photo shoot.

Many thanks to Lamiya Samad and Zara for participating in the Session 4 videos.

How to access

Available to all

The Immunisation programme is freely available to access here.
Please note your progress and completion of sessions will not be recorded and you will not be able to generate a record of completion. If you require evidence of learning, please register and then log in to access this programme on the elfh Hub.

If you already have an account with elfh, then you can enrol on to the Immunisation programme by logging in to the elfh Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My elearning section.

Register >

To view the Immunisation programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

View >

NHS healthcare staff in England

The Immunisation programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.

Further details are available here.

Not an NHS organisation?

If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Immunisation programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.