Short course
New to Travel Health
This two-day course is an introduction to travel health for registered nurses and other healthcare professionals who are new to the field. It is taught by lecturers who work in travel clinics alongside their university roles, and built around real case scenarios, so you can see how the guidance applies to the travellers you will see in practice. 100% of students who responded to our most recent course evaluation said they would recommend it to a colleague. The RCPSG Faculty of Travel Medicine's Good Practice Guidance for Providing a Travel Health Service states that two days of travel health training is essential before providing travel consultations, and this course is designed to meet that requirement, with content mapped to the national standards throughout.
Overview
Travel health can be a complex area for many practitioners, and this course is designed to make it accessible and manageable. Over two full days, with a mix of taught sessions and self-directed learning, you will cover the pre-travel consultation and risk assessment, NHS and privately funded travel vaccines, non-vaccine preventable diseases and health promotion advice, malaria, mosquito-borne viruses, and the professional and legal issues that sit around travel health practice, including PGDs and PSDs, safeguarding and FGM. Real case scenarios are used throughout the teaching to bring the content to life and show how it applies in practice.
The course is taught by our general practice nurse lecturers, who also work clinically. Teaching is based on the resources you will use in the travel consultation itself, including NaTHNaC/TravelHealthPro and the Green Book. The content is mapped to the RCPSG Faculty of Travel Medicine Good Practice Guidance for Providing a Travel Health Service and meets the requirement for those new to travel medicine.
On completing the course, you must undertake a period of supervised practice while you develop your clinical skills, before carrying out travel consultations independently. Alongside immunisation training and annual updates, this course forms part of the recognised route into safe travel health practice.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course you will have the underpinning knowledge to:
- Carry out a structured pre-travel risk assessment that takes account of the traveller, their destination, itinerary and individual risk factors, and document it appropriately.
- Advise on and, where appropriate, administer NHS and privately funded travel vaccines, and give evidence-based non-vaccine advice using national resources such as NaTHNaC/TravelHealthPro and the Green Book.
- Apply the professional, legal and governance frameworks relevant to travel health practice, including PGDs and PSDs, safeguarding duties such as FGM, and recognising the limits of your own competence.
The course provides the theoretical knowledge for these areas. Competence is confirmed in practice, through a period of supervised practice and assessment by your supervising practitioner before you undertake travel consultations independently.
Who will benefit?
This course is for registered nurses and other registered healthcare professionals who are new to travel health, returning to it after a gap, or already practising without formal training in the subject and wanting to update their knowledge. It is particularly suited to practice nurses and general practice nurses taking on travel health as part of their role or setting up a travel clinic.
You should be a registered healthcare professional. Ideally you will have completed, or be working towards, foundation immunisation training, as national guidance recommends two-day travel health training alongside immunisation training and annual updates before independent practice.
Please note this is an introductory course. It does not cover yellow fever vaccine administration or independent malaria chemoprophylaxis prescribing. Both are signposted during the course for those wanting to develop further.
Course in depth
Course structure
The course runs over two full days and combines taught sessions with self-directed learning. The two-day format meets the training requirement set out in the RCPSG Good Practice Guidance for practitioners new to travel health.
Day one covers the foundations: the pre-travel consultation, risk assessment, health promotion and non-vaccine advice, and NHS and privately funded travel vaccines. You will also learn to use NaTHNaC/TravelHealthPro during the session, so you leave able to apply it in practice.
Day two covers the wider aspects of travel health, including medical tourism, post-travel presentations, safeguarding, and the legal and professional responsibilities of the travel health practitioner. Case studies based on real travellers bring the two days together, and self-directed activities give you time to work through material independently, including a competency self-assessment to take into supervised practice.
Attendance
- Delivered online
- Two full days
- A mix of live taught sessions and self-directed learning
- You will need to be available for both days
What is included?
Schedule & Location
8th and 9th of December
Location
Online
Fees and enrolment
Level: Foundation course
Cost: £235 (inc VAT)
If you're interested in finding out more about this course or would like more information before you enrol, please register your interest and we'll be in touch with more information.