IMAC Resources
IMAC Resources
Registrations are now open to book your place at the Aotearoa New Zealand Immunisation Conference 2023 & pre-conference Workshop, being held in Auckland on 15-17 November 2023.
A draft programme for the Conference has also just been released, outlining all of the plenary sessions over the two days.
Visit our webpage to register for the Conference (under the ‘Registration’ section) and view the draft programme (under the ‘Programme outline’ section).
There is also a Zoom option to attend the Conference plenary sessions.
We also invite you to consider becoming a Conference presenter through submitting an abstract. There are two oral presentation streams:
- Policy & Practice – to present experiences and practices related to service delivery or policy decisions.
- Academic Research – for project-based qualitative or quantitative research conducted to answer key questions about immunisation and vaccine-preventable diseases.
The Abstract submissions portal is open until 16 July. For more details see the ‘Become a presenter at the Conference’ section on our webpage.
We look forward to seeing you in November!
A new link has been created for existing and new users to access the flu or inventory specialist training modules that are available through IMACs 2023 learning catalogue: https://www.immune.org.nz/factsheets/2023-education-course-dates
If you had previously saved links from the e-learn modules, please remember to save the new links to your browser.
To help you find these the direct links are:
- For vaccinators CIR training is in the vaccinators course: https://www.immune.org.nz/immunisation-workforce/covid-19-vaccinators
- For administrators and reception: https://www.immune.org.nz/catalogue/cir-bookmyvaccine-for-reception-admin
- For flu in CIR: https://www.immune.org.nz/catalogue/entering-influenza-vaccination-into-the-cir
- For inventory in CIR: https://www.immune.org.nz/catalogue/managing-inventory-in-the-covid-19-imms-register-v1
The COVID-19 Vaccinator Working Under Supervision (CVWUS) was introduced as response to the pandemic in June 2021 as a new class of vaccinators in New Zealand, to accelerate the expansion and diversification of the COVID-19 vaccinator workforce.
The Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) introduced the CVWUS education programme, which resulted in a pathway for the non-regulated healthcare workforce to join the immunisation workforce and increased capacity of providers, particularly Māori and Pacific health providers and pharmacies to administer COVID-19 vaccine to their local communities. The programme ended in July 2022 and has been superseded by the Vaccinating Health Worker (VHW) pathway. A total of 517 CVWUS were authorised by Te Whatu Ora and their authorisation to administer COVID-19 vaccine will expire on 1 June 2023.
This means, if you wish to continue to administer COVID-19 vaccines beyond 1 June 2023, you must become an authorised VHW. In August 2022, VHW was introduced as a new class of vaccinators in New Zealand to provide a career progression pathway for authorised CVWUS to upskill and expand practice scope. This included the ability to administer additional vaccines under supervision including influenza, HPV9 and Tdap vaccines. Further upskilling will enable VHWs to administer vaccines to an extended age group and includes administration of the MMR vaccine.
Any CVWUS that does not transition to a VHW by 1 June 2023 will no longer be authorized to vaccinate and must stop vaccinating on this date.
The VHW education is offered by IMAC. To learn more about the education pathway and enrol into the VHW programme, visit the IMAC website.
To learn more about the VHW role and understand the employer responsibilities visit the Te Whatu Ora website.
• VHW Capability matrix
• VHW Information sheet
• VHW Supervisor information sheet
• VHW Employer information sheet
The latest Immunisation Handbook has now been published. This large update includes the changes to the COVID-19 vaccine products and the additional of the Meningitis B vaccine to the schedule as well as other smaller updates.
https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/immunisation-handbook-2020
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/immunisation-handbook-2020
Please note: the Handbook is no longer available in print and only the online version should be used.
https://covid.immune.org.nz/news-insights/comirnaty-grey-caps-x2-webinar
This webinar covers:
- differences between the vaccines
- vaccine safety and effectiveness data
- practical issues
- resources.
Resources and guidance are on the IMAC website:
Comirnaty grey cap x2 | The Immunisation Advisory Centre (immune.org.nz)
For these courses (below) you will need to create an account on the new e-learning system, and to do that you'll need to register for a course at the same time.
- Flexible Vaccinator Foundation
- 2-day Vaccinator Foundation
- Bridging
- Both Online and in person Update courses
You can only set up an e-learning account as part of the process of registering for a course.
You can’t set up an account without registering for a course, so you’ll need to do both at once. Give yourself a little extra time because setting up a new account will involve a couple of extra steps to help ensure your data is kept safe.
For step by step instructions see here.
Please note that other courses are still running on the previous learning management system, which you will access by selecting 'Access LMS' instead of 'Add to cart'.
Resources and guidance are on our MenB Bexsero resources page
The e-learning for AIR is available for anyone who is interested and will be sent automatically to those signing up for AIR. You can access the e-learning package on the IMAC website. AIR is currently being rolled out to pharmacy’s and will replace ImmuniseNow. The roll out will be extended to other providers in 2023.
Click here for the latest screening guide
Click here for access to all IMAC webinars