Critical Requirements

All admitted students are required to provide documentation verifying completion of specific requirements. You must complete a background check, drug screening and health clearance verifications, which include certain vaccinations. The requirements set forth are mandated for all UC health professions students.

Your nursing courses include clinical components completed in hospital and community settings each semester. These clinical sites mandate vaccinations for all students and health professionals.

To participate in the clinical component of courses, you must submit documentation of flu, Tdap, varicella, MMR, hepatitis B and COVID-19 vaccinations, along with a titer blood test. Note: the varicella, MMR and hepatitis B vaccinations require multiple doses and several weeks between each dose. Compliance with this requirement is demonstrated through documentation of the completed vaccinations and positive antibody testing.

You will receive more information on these requirements and how to submit the requested information during your orientation. Clinical clearance will be granted to students when all requirements have been completed. If you have questions or concerns, email conoad@uc.edu.

Before you can begin uploading documentation to CastleBranch, you must purchase a CastleBranch Package. Your academic advisor will provide you with information needed to do this, once your specific package is ready. It is important that you do not order your package until you receive further instructions with the appropriate package and classification codes to ensure you are added to the correct cohort.

You can, however, begin collecting medical vaccination records needed for your CastleBranch profile, once purchased. These records include:

• MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)
• Hepatitis B
• Chicken pox
• TDAP vaccination (required every 10 years)

If you have never received vaccinations for these, schedule an appointment with your primary care provider to do so.

If you have been vaccinated, schedule an appointment with your primary care provider to get titers drawn (a surface antibody titer, not an antigen titer) for MMR, hepatitis B and chicken pox.

You will receive next steps in an email from your advisor, but this will get you started before your package code is ready for purchase.

All students are required by UC and all the College of Nursing's clinical sites to have a COVID-19 vaccination or approved exemption on file.

• To submit UC documentation: View information on how to submit vaccination documentation or request an exemption from the university on the COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement page.
• To submit clinical site documentation: Certain clinical sites have additional COVID-19 requirements. As a student, you will be added to a Canvas community with details on how to update your vaccination documentation with your specific clinical site.
  

The Compliance Summary is for you to show to preceptors/faculty members responsible for your clinical practicums to verify that you have met the requirements. If you are unable to produce a valid compliance summary, the preceptor/faculty member will exclude you from all patient contact. Your inability to participate in required clinical experiences may be cause for withdrawing you from the course or may jeopardize your successful completion of the course and prevent your progression in the curriculum.

Students must remain compliant at all times. This includes keeping all annual requirement information up to date in your CastleBranch account. After your first year in the program, you must order a recheck package through CastleBranch. You will receive more information via email leading up to that time.

You will not be able to attend clinical until all requirements are completed and verified. Students who miss clinical hours have an increased risk of not being successful in the clinical portion of their nursing courses due to missed opportunities to be observed and compared to written standards by their clinical faculty.

Refer to the student instruction document for more details concerning placing your order. Take the time to review the following documents, as they will be useful in facilitating the completion of your critical requirements.

• CastleBranch Overview
• Submitting Documents

For additional help getting started with CastleBranch, follow the below link to watch short video tutorials that provide answers to frequently asked questions:

• CastleBranch Videos
  

For further assistance related to critical requirements, email conoad@uc.edu.