Page 24 - HKU Nursing 25th Anniversary Booklet

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A D E C AD E O F T H E C E R T I F I C AT E I N

I N F E C T I O N C O N TR OL C OUR S E

From SARS to COVID-19, the School pioneers in

the teaching of infection control with HKU medical experts

The School of Nursing has offered its Certificate in Infection Control course, training nurses in enhanced infection
control knowledge and practice for over 10 years. The launch of the course was prompted by the 2003 SARS
outbreak that infected 2,000 people and led to nearly 300 deaths in Hong Kong alone. Professor Sophia Chan,
the then Head of the School, noticed then the lack of infection control knowledge and the necessity to equip
frontline healthcare workers to fight future challenges and in 2009 led the School to support and co-organise
the course, with the leadership of Professor Yuen Kwok-yung from Department of Microbiology at HKU. Working
together, colleagues across HKU took this pioneering step of offering a well-structured infection control course
in Hong Kong.

The course has been tactically designed. Topics in the six modules are delivered by different experts, focusing on
the latest knowledge and new practice trends of various infection control measures. Small scientific experiments
or interactive exercises are arranged in each module for offering students the opportunities to visualise, experience
and fully understand the concepts of infection control.

In the first 10 years of the Certificate in Infection Control course, we have trained nurses, allied health workers,
paramedics and even clinicians; not just those who work in public hospitals or community healthcare, but also the
private sector in Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen.

More than 3,750 healthcare professionals have studied specially designed modules and around 1,244 have
graduated from the full course. Since 2012, the Mr Lui Hac Minh Prize for Infection Control has been awarded to
the 12 course participants with the most outstanding results.

Our awareness that infection control is a top priority comes from working in such a densely populated community
and understanding the global risk to health from emerging infectious diseases. The School’s programme is one
of the most valuable infection control courses available and will continue to benefit daily nursing practice, disease
prevention and strengthen our pandemic preparedness for the next decades to come.