Page 17 - JRCERT Update Articles

JRCERT Update

Vaccines: Policy and Education in Radiologic

Sciences Programs

Tracy Herrmann, PhD, R.T.(R), FAEIRS

accines are an important preventive measure environment and preventive measures such as vaccines.
to decrease the potential consequences of In addition, when programs undergo the accreditation
exposure to certain, mostly viral, diseases. review process, they are asked to “Provide institution
VAlthough vaccines cannot always prevent and/or program policies and procedures that safeguard
infection, they might prevent more serious illness and the health and safety of students.” Student vaccination
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death. Vaccines are important for the health and safety is 1 of these important policies and procedures.
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of health care workers and students, including radio-
logic technologists, because they are more likely to be Background and Historical Effect
exposed to communicable disease as a part of their of Vaccines
daily work in the medical environment. Not only do Vaccination is the introduction of a vaccine;
vaccines protect the individual, they also protect those immunization is the resulting protection against the
who encounter the health care worker, including disease. According to the World Health Organization
patients, coworkers, family, and friends. With the (WHO), vaccination protects against harmful disease
recent COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of a before contact by causing the individual’s immune
healthy workforce to care for communities has been system to create antibodies that build resistance to
witnessed firsthand. a specific infectious agent. Vaccinations cause the
The Joint Review Committee on Education in body to increase T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes
Radiologic Technology accreditation standards estab- that retain memory needed to fight future viruses. 3
lish educational expectations for medical imaging Vaccines do this without putting the individual at
and radiation therapy programs. These standards are risk of getting the disease because they do not include
“designed to promote academic excellence, patient safe- active forms of the virus or bacteria. This makes them
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ty, and quality healthcare.” Standard 5.5 specifically an excellent preventive measure in the fight against
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addresses the safety of students and mandates that “The communicable diseases.
sponsoring institution and/or program have policies One of the greatest success stories in the history of
and procedures that safeguard the health and safety of vaccinations is smallpox eradication. Smallpox was con-
students.” Standard 5.5 further explains: sidered 1 of the “most persistent and serious of all the
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pestilential diseases known to history.” Edward Jenner
Appropriate health and safety policies and
procedures assure that students are part of a safe, noticed that milkmaids who had previously had cowpox
protected environment. These policies must, at did not get smallpox. Using this information, he began
a minimum, address campus safety, emergency to test inoculations on others, creating the smallpox
preparedness, harassment, communicable diseases, vaccine in 1796. Smallpox was eradicated in 1980, and
and substance abuse. Enrolled students must be its eradication is considered a great achievement in
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informed of policies and procedures. 2 global health. Another success story regarding vaccines
is Albert Sabin’s development of the world’s first oral
This means that policies regarding communicable live-virus vaccine, which was used in the battle against
diseases should address safe practice in the clinical poliomyelitis. He first successfully tested the vaccine

308 asrt.org/publications
Reprinted with permission from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists for educational purposes. ©2023. All rights reserved.