Government Policies affecting all postgraduate Medicine students
Criminal Record Checks
Working with Children
Blood-borne Viruses and Immunisation
Criminal Record Checks
The New South Wales Department of Health has a policy that all students who require access in any capacity to facilities operated by the Department must undergo a criminal record check prior to employment or placement in any capacity in the NSW Health System. The check is conducted by the NSW Police Service and is coordinated by the Department of Health and the University.
Students who fail to satisfy the requirements of this check at any point during their enrolment in postgraduate Programs accessing NSW Health facilities will be excluded from the Program. Depending upon the circumstances at the time, students may be eligible to transfer to another Program of the University.
Criminal record checks will be carried out only in relation to the following classes of serious offence:
- Sexual offences;
- Serious offences involving a threat or injury to another person; and
- Other serious offences (defined as offences committed in NSW which are punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment for 12 months or more; and offences committed outside NSW which, if they had been committed in NSW, would be punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment for 12 months or more).
A Clearance Letter is issued when a satisfactory police check has been completed. It must be retained for the duration of enrolment in the Medicine Program, and must be presented whenever attending a clinical placement in a NSW Health facility.
Working with Children
Under the
Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998 and the
Child Protection (Prohibited Employment) Act 1998, students who as part of their enrolment are required to have direct contact with children must declare whether they are a ‘prohibited person’, that is whether they have been convicted of a serious sex offence. It is an offence for a ‘prohibited person’ to work with children.
Any student who is a ‘Prohibited Person’ at any point during their enrolment in a postgraduate Program will be excluded from the Program. Depending upon the circumstances at the time, students may be eligible to transfer to another Program of the University.
Students with Blood-borne Viruses and Immunisation for Students
In order to be enrolled in a UNSW Faculty of Medicine Postgraduate Program, students must agree to comply with the Faculty’s Immunisation and Blood-borne Viruses Policy, which aims to minimise the risk of students contracting or spreading an infectious disease or blood-borne virus, such as HIV, and Hepatitis B or C. Students who undertake or could reasonably be expected to undertake exposure-prone procedures have a professional responsibility to take appropriate steps to know their infective status in relation to blood-borne viruses. A student who is aware he or she has a blood-borne virus infection must not undertake exposure-prone procedures.
Any infective student who knowingly undertakes an exposure-prone procedure or any student who in any other way endangers the health of patients will be reported to the Medical Board’s Impaired Practitioner Program. This may result in registration being withdrawn, which will result in expulsion from the Postgraduate Program. Such a student would also be subject to the University’s Student Misconduct procedures and may further be liable to criminal prosecution if a blood-borne virus is knowingly transmitted.
Immunisation and Blood-borne Viruses
Policy of the Faculty of Medicine. Please also read the
Overview and Useful Links. Students could be required to sign a statement indicating that they have read and agree to comply with this Policy at the time of enrolment.