Competency #1: The Immune System and Vaccines

This competency explains how vaccines work using basic knowledge of immune system.

Learning Objectives

The health professional will be able to perform the following:

Compare and contrast innate and adaptive immunity
Differentiate between the primary and memory immune response to a vaccine.
Differentiate between passive and active immunity.
Explain why some vaccines induce a memory response while others do not.
Name some host- and vaccine-related factors that affect the immune response to vaccines.
Explain how the immunization schedule accommodates factors that affect the immune response to vaccines.
Respond to the concern that giving too many vaccines will overload the immune system.
Discuss the pros and cons of immunity gained through immunization as opposed to wild-type infection.