About Infection Control Skill Set
Why do I need Infection Prevention and Control Training?
The COVID -19 Pandemic has been a hard hit to a variety of industries across Australia putting both workplaces and workers at risk like never before. In response, the Australian Industry and Skills Committee have launched four new Nationally Recognised Infection Control Skill Sets designed to keep Australian Workers and Community safe. These skills sets are also designed to assist Business Owners in providing the correct infection control Training to their workers as part of the various states COVID- 19 response WHS plans.
There are four new skill sets, three are developed to meet the needs of specific industries and one related to Health and Community Care settings and medical based infection control and prevention.
- HLTSS00064 – Infection control Skill Set
- HLTSS00065- Infection control Skill Set (Retail)
- HLTSS00066- Infection control Skill Set (Food Handling)
- HLTSS00067- Infection control Skill Set (Transport and Logistics)
What is a Skill Set?
A skill set is the name for a set of nationally recognised units that train and assess people to make sure they have the right skills and knowledge for the workplace. In the case of the Infection Control Skill Sets, this ‘set of units’ is actually only one unit, either HLTINF001 – Comply with infection prevention and control policies and procedures OR HLTINFCOV001 – Comply with infection prevention and control policies and procedures.
What is the difference between these two infection prevention and control units?
HLTINFCOV001 – Comply with infection prevention and control policies and procedures is the new nationally recognized unit that has been approved for delivery as part of the Specific Industry skill sets. The training and assessment of this unit is changed (contextualised) to meet the needs of each of the Industries in questions.
HLTINF001 – Comply with infection prevention and control policies and procedures is an existing infection prevention and control unit that was originally developed for the Health sector. It is now part of the HLTSS00064 – Infection control Skill Set. The training and assessment of this unit is designed around delivering service in a high risk area to some of Australia’s most vulnerable people.
What will the units cover?
Students will learn a range of skills, including:
- Hand hygiene practices
- Effective surface cleaning
- Interacting safely with the general public
- Use of personal protective equipment
- Disposal of contaminated waste
- Hazard identification, control and reporting
- Appropriate protocols and responses in the event of an incident
- Knowledge regarding the basis of infection and transmission
Federal and State Government Commitment
The Australian Federal Government has allocated a new $80 million Infection Control Training Fund to fast-track fee free (or low cost) infection control training through the State Governments. This funding is for existing workers and to help business owner’s re-open customer-facing businesses nationwide.
Around 80,000 workers across industries including retail, tourism, hospitality cleaning, security, transport and logistics as well as community care will pay no fee or a small fee for training previously only widely available in the health sector.
Keeping yourself and Others Safe
- Hand hygiene practices
- How and when to properly clean your hands
- Hygiene hand care, including maintaining intact skin, fingernails and jewellery/watches
- The importance of PPE including what, when and how to safely use PPE in your job role
- Gloves
- Waterproof aprons, Uniforms and Jackets
- Protective masks
- Protective glasses and face shields
- Respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette
Keeping your workplace safe
- The difference between cleaning and sanitising
- Cleaning and Handling of everyday equipment
- Effective surface cleaning
- Disposal of contaminated waste
- Infection Risk Management
- Hazard identification, control and reporting
- Identifying hazards and risks that requiring additional controls
- Controlling the risk of contamination