Friday, 26 July 2019: 3:30 PM
Background/Purpose: Immunization coverage in Texas ranks far below the national average for children, putting them at risk for life threatening diseases (Comfort, Espinosa, Hetrick, & Bocchini, 2017). The Texas Medical Center Health Policy Institute Collaborative (TMC) funded a research study for 12 months with the UTHealth Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, and the City of Houston. The collaborative addressed the complex issue of vaccine delinquency. The goal of the collaborative was to decrease vaccination disparities among pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students at eight high risk inner city schools in Houston, Texas.
Methods: Baccalaureate nursing students worked in interprofessional collaboration with researchers and faculty during this 12 month project. Nursing students were able to utilize their knowledge and skills from community health and research didactic courses during the project. During the 12 month project students attended meetings and focused on tasks including assisting with immunization reconciliation, immunization follow up, community assessment, and community outreach. Community outreach events focused on the target population of parents and caretakers of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. Settings included 8 inner city schools, vaccination clinics, and outreach events with Harris Health, a public health system. Students practiced competencies for interprofessional collaboration with their nurse preceptors and clinical faculty.
Results: Semester one students assisted school nurses with record reconciliation utilizing ImmTrac2 (Texas Immunization Registry). Students were able to acquire further “real world” nursing knowledge of current immunization schedules, reading of immunization records from around the globe, and working with ImmTrac2. In semester two the students worked with the interdisciplinary team to systematically assess the communities around the high risk schools utilizing the “Community As Partner Model” and present their findings to the collaborators (Anderson & McFarlane, 2019). Nursing students shared their findings with the collaborative research team. The findings included the immunization facilitators and barriers in the community. During semester two, nursing students continued working with ImmTrac2 and immunization reconciliation. In the final semester, Post-Hurricane Harvey, nursing students assisted school nurses with maintenance of current and new students’ immunization record compliance and referred parents to community immunization resources. The overall outcomes included significant reductions in MMR delinquency rates among pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.
Methods: Baccalaureate nursing students worked in interprofessional collaboration with researchers and faculty during this 12 month project. Nursing students were able to utilize their knowledge and skills from community health and research didactic courses during the project. During the 12 month project students attended meetings and focused on tasks including assisting with immunization reconciliation, immunization follow up, community assessment, and community outreach. Community outreach events focused on the target population of parents and caretakers of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. Settings included 8 inner city schools, vaccination clinics, and outreach events with Harris Health, a public health system. Students practiced competencies for interprofessional collaboration with their nurse preceptors and clinical faculty.
Results: Semester one students assisted school nurses with record reconciliation utilizing ImmTrac2 (Texas Immunization Registry). Students were able to acquire further “real world” nursing knowledge of current immunization schedules, reading of immunization records from around the globe, and working with ImmTrac2. In semester two the students worked with the interdisciplinary team to systematically assess the communities around the high risk schools utilizing the “Community As Partner Model” and present their findings to the collaborators (Anderson & McFarlane, 2019). Nursing students shared their findings with the collaborative research team. The findings included the immunization facilitators and barriers in the community. During semester two, nursing students continued working with ImmTrac2 and immunization reconciliation. In the final semester, Post-Hurricane Harvey, nursing students assisted school nurses with maintenance of current and new students’ immunization record compliance and referred parents to community immunization resources. The overall outcomes included significant reductions in MMR delinquency rates among pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.
Recommendations/Conclusion: Nursing students played an integral role in reducing the vaccination delinquency rates by working on the front lines with school nurses, community agencies, and the collaborative research team. Nursing students can utilize the knowledge they acquire while in nursing school and apply the knowledge and skills on real world problems. Interprofessional collaboration integrating students with professionals is an innovative approach to population health problems. Community health clinical experiences integrated in a multi-disciplinary team can make a significant impact on real world health problems in the community, reduce health disparities, and improve health.