Immunization Tour

Thesis: Immunizations are one of the most important medical advances in history. They have severely reduced the effects of dozens of viral infections and everyone should consider getting immunized.

Going on a vacation is usually a wonderful experience and is a memory that is cherished and never forgotten, especially if it’s to a place where your roots come from, but there are times when things don’t go to plan, and you end up disliking the trip. A bad experience, more often than not, will influence your future decisions on whether or not it’s a good idea to attempt another trip to the same destination. Recently, India has become a semi-popular tourist destination for Europeans and Americans to visit because they think it’s a relatively safe and beautiful third-world country to travel to. I never understood why when my friends would always express their jealousy when they found out I’ve been to India a total of three times in my life. At the time I just assumed they hadn’t seen the world as I had at a young age, but even though I was young, at the age of eight, during my last trip to India. That specific trip was the deciding factor for me to conclude that I no longer want to visit there ever again, even if someone were to pay me or for my entire trip.

People in the United States are urged from day one that vaccinations are important for the well being of their children and for everyone that your child may come in contact with. Recently, childhood vaccinations have been stigmatized as a negative process. Parents have become increasingly concerned about the effects and side effects of vaccinations. The problem being, that the infectious diseases that are being prevented for, are being forgotten about. Vaccinations have been doing their job in protecting us for so long that the infectious diseases are less scary than vaccination process itself (Austvoll-Dahlgren & Helseth, 2012, p. 271). Vaccinations are a preventative measure and one that will continue to be implemented in children for their individual safety and for the safety of the public. However, it is still the families’ choice whether or not they want to proceed with the vaccination process or not. Most vaccinations are going to be administered by a registered nurse, therefore, it is the role of the nurse to supply information, and answer questions when counseling families through this process. The goal is to make people feel as comfortable and as informed as possible so that they can make a decision on whether to submit to the vaccination process or not.

For the past ten years, we at Virginia Mason Medical Center have been implementing mandatory influenza vaccination. This is due to the flu vaccination being able to reduce flu illnesses and prevent flu-related hospitalizations. According to the Center for Control and Disease (CDC, 2014) during 2012-2013, an estimated 45% of the U.S population got vaccinated, helping to prevent an estimated 6.6 million flu-related illness, with 3.2 million flu-related medical visits, almost 80,000 hospitalizations and roughly $87 billion dollars in total economic burden. Influenza is extremely contagious and each year on an average 5%-20% of the U.S population get the flu with tens of thousands die from a flu-related illness. Therefore, many health cares setting along with Virginia Mason Medical Center is mandating all their healthcare workers to get the influenza vaccination. Consequently, making annual influenza vaccination requirement for healthcare workers a continuing and debatable health topic. The potential of getting the vaccination have great benefits to healthcare professionals, their patients, and their families by

Today I got to experience giving middle school and high school students’ flu shots at Lanier County Middle/High School. I was expecting the students to be nervous and show signs of intimidation at the sight of the needle. Before going to the school, I helped the nurse gather the equipment we were going to use, which included, the influenza immunizations, Band-Aids, alcohol prep wipes, and gloves. We also brought colorful pencils and stickers for the students after receiving their flu shot. The nurse also made sure to bring the emergency kit, which consisted of epinephrine, just in case anyone had an allergic reaction.

It is very important to get vaccinated and to get checked out to see if you already encountered the disease. It is very important because, it saves you from catching a horrible disease and getting very sick. Also, if it’s a communicable disease you wouldn’t want it to harm others around you.

Hospital administration considered the strained relationships that could result between the employer and staff and lack of data on mandatory vaccination programs. HMC chose instead to modify their existing vaccination program to include one-on-one influenza and vaccination education, initiate data collection on declinations, and use mobile teams to increase the convenience of vaccination for HCWs (Lynch et al., 2015). Employee compliance could only be achieved by receiving and documenting the vaccination; providing written documentation of a medical exemption from an appropriate healthcare professional, or completing an online influenza educational module followed by a 10-15 minute one-on-one appointment with an employee health nurse or physician (Lynch et al., 2015). The addition of the one-on-one education/training sessions using the “stick” approach resulted in a 50% reduction in declinations for non-medical reasons and an overall HCW vaccination rate increase to 93% (Lynch et al., 2015).

Your research article was intriguing. The subject of vaccinating children has been a growing topic of conversation The point that you made regarding as a patient advocate nurses have the role of educating our patients and families of the benefits of vaccinations. The patient may not understand the role of the vaccine and what can be prevented if vaccinated. The healthcare worker may need education regarding vaccinations as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Hepatitis B, and Pneumococcal vaccinations are recommended for patients with chronic kidney disease or on dialysis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012).

In many ways, vaccinations are among the great success stories of modern medicine. The literature indicates the importance of promoting a culture of annual vaccination on a routine basis to protect patients and healthcare professionals from morbidity and mortality. The data provided can be used to educate healthcare workers and improve the health outcomes of their employees and patients. According to the research, the figures may help administrators of health facilities incorporate policies to raise the proportion of their staff to comply with the influenza immunization (Shahar et al., 2016). Future protocols and intervention programs should be constructed and advertise the success among those who received the vaccination yearly. Compliance

The first step I took in my expedition was increasing my understanding of vaccines and how they functioned. Luckily, since my major is microbiology, I have taken some courses that have given me a foundation to understanding vaccines. By simply googling how vaccines work, I found the CDC’s article thoroughly explaining the fundamentals of vaccines. Basically, “Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating an infection. This type of infection, however, does not cause illness, but it does cause the immune system to produce T-lymphocytes and antibodies.” By infecting yourself with a weakened infection, you essential gave your body a guide on how to defend if the real deal came through. Now this is where the

Influenza, as stated above, is a preventable spreadable infection. The goal of this education session was to expand the knowledge of long-term residents on vaccination against influenza. In a preliminary meeting, it was found that over 15 residents had refused this years’ influenza vaccination. The objectives of the teaching plan included: identifying signs and symptoms of influenza, discuss both positive and negative feels during the vaccine, identify exclusion criteria to receiving the vaccine, and demonstrate arm exercises to prevent soreness after vaccination (“Government”, 2014).

Relating to the Audience: As college students, we cross paths with hundreds of people every day. With winter coming up, and illnesses running rampant, we are all highly susceptible to catching diseases such as the flu. With vaccinations, we can prevent getting these illnesses.

Although there are rules that children must be immunized in order to attend school, some parents are hiding behind cultural and religious laws to avoid getting their children immunized. In turn, this puts children who are not immunized at risk for preventable diseases because of the lack of herd immunity. Due to the absence of immunity, children are dying from preventable diseases at a steadily increasing rate. Since parents consider nurses to be one of the most trusted sources of information concerning their child’s health and well-being, we as nurses need to maintain a proactive approach in educating our society about immunizations and the importance of being fully

“Before the middle of the last century, diseases like whooping cough, polio, measles, Haemophilus influenzae, and rubella struck hundreds of thousands of infants, children and adults in the U.S.” (“If We Stopped”). Millions of people die every year because of them. With the development of vaccines, they have become more frequently used, and as a result, the rates of theses diseases have drastically declined. A vaccine is a substance that creates immunity from a disease and can be administered in three different ways, through needles, by mouth, or by aerosol. A vaccination is the injection of a killed or weakened organism that makes the body immune to that organism and an immunization is the process where an animal or human being has become protected against a disease (“Basics”). Parents should vaccinate their children because it is safe and effective, it saves time and money, and it protects future generations.

Vaccines are offered and encouraged by doctors around the globe. Although, many feel the need to turn down these opportunities for protection, putting themselves and those they care for in danger. If one decides not to visit the dentist, chooses to eat poorly, refuses to wear sunglasses on a sunny day, or does not put on sunscreen while on a beach, they are putting