Hepatitis B Vaccination Policy

Statement

The University of Dundee recognises that some staff and students should be offered a safe and effective vaccine against Hep B as an additional measure to prevent against accidental infection.

Arrangements

This policy does not cover staff and students working in a clinical context. These staff and students from the School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, and School of Health Sciences are covered by arrangements made with NHS Tayside. It does include staff from this College involved in laboratory research.

The staff and students it does apply to have been identified by a generic risk assessment carried out by Head of Safety Services. This assessment concluded that only staff and postgraduate students involved in research with unscreened human blood and tissue are at significant risk of infection by Hepatitis (Hep) B. Other staff (for example:First Aiders, Appointed persons, Cleaners, Security staff) were considered, but it was concluded that the risk for these staff was not significant given their training and work procedures.

This generic risk assessment did not identify which staff and post-graduate students are at risk since the likelihood of a ‘needlestick’ injury or contamination of the eyes, nose or mouth could not be assessed without further information. Therefore, a specific risk assessment must be completed by the line manager of the staff or student to justify Hep B vaccination. This assessment must conclude that despite the safety precautions being followed to prevent infection from a bloodborne pathogen such as Hep C or HIV there remains a risk of infection by Hep B virus. Therefore, it is reasonable to recommend that the research staff or postgraduate student is offered a very safe vaccine. A suitable risk assessment form is given below.

The OH Service nurses will provide Hep B vaccination to staff and post-graduate students identified in these specific risk assessments. The nurse will:

1. review their Hep B status
2. explain the benefits of vaccination and the associated risks
3. obtain their consent or if consent is not given lodge a signed disclaimer in their clinical notes
4. complete the Hep B questionnaire with the patient to identify confounders
5. administer Hep B vaccine according to recommended schedule
6. notify their GP that Hep B vaccine has been given

A Risk Assessment for Hep B Vaccination is available from the Safety Services Sharepoint website.

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