SD18 - Efficacy of Requiring Continuing Education for Universal Precautions and Sterilization/Disinfection Procedures by Health Professionals

  • Published: 1993
  • Author: Department of Health Professions
  • Enabling Authority: Senate Joint Resolution 111 (Regular Session, 1992)

Executive Summary:
Senate Joint Resolution Number 111 of the 1992 Session of the Virginia General Assembly requested the health regulatory boards within the Department of Health Professions to study and report on the efficacy of requiring continuing education in the prevention and transmission of contagious diseases. The Resolution was prompted by documentation of the risk for transmission of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) from patients to healthcare workers (HCWs) in the workplace, and by intense media coverage of the single known instance of transmission of HIV from a HCW to patients.

The Department of Health Professions is a central administrative and investigative agency for twelve individual health regulatory boards: Audiology and Speech/Language Pathology, Dentistry, Funeral Directors and Embalmers, Medicine, Nursing, Nursing Home Administrators, Optometry, Pharmacy, Professional Counselors, Psychology, Social Work, and Veterinary Medicine. These boards license or otherwise regulate nearly 200,000 healthcare workers and over 3,000 facilities in Virginia, including practitioners in 50 regulated health occupations and professions. Their authority includes establishment of standards for entry to regulated practice and for continued licensure or certification.

The boards regulate only a limited range of healthcare facilities (such as funeral establishments, pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, and animal hospitals). Other agencies of Virginia government regulate hospitals and nursing homes (Department of Health), homes for adults (Department of Social Services), mental health facilities (Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services) and other elements of the healthcare delivery system. In addition, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry administers federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) programs for worker protection in the healthcare workplace.

Within the Department of Health Professions, a 17-member Board of Health Professions appointed by the Governor coordinates regulatory policy within the Department and among the boards and advises the Director of the Department, the Governor, and the General Assembly on all matters related to the regulation of health occupations and professions in the Commonwealth. The Board includes one member appointed from the membership of each of the twelve regulatory boards and five citizen members. Its authority includes promotion of the development of standards by which to evaluate the competence of the professions and occupations regulated within the Department.