Recognition Campaign for “Best Practices in Seasonal Influenza Immunization Programs”
The American Nurses Association (ANA) is committed to advocating for the health of nurses and the patients that they serve. Because of this commitment, ANA supports implementation of aggressive and comprehensive influenza vaccination programs for registered nurses and other health care personnel (HCP) that aim for 100% vaccination rates, while allowing individuals to “opt out” with the completion of a declination form. In order to support increased vaccination rates among health care professionals, ANA announces the 2007-2008 Best Practices in Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Programs Campaign. The goal of this second season of this program is to build on the lessons learned in the past successful recognition campaign in 2006-2007.
ANA continues to be concerned about the unacceptable low rates of seasonal influenza vaccination rates of registered nurses and other health care personnel and its subsequent impact not only to registered nurses and other HCP but also to their vulnerable patients. Since 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recommended annual influenza vaccinations for all health care personnel. Despite ongoing recommendations, vaccination rates as measured by the CDC remain below 50% for HCP. The transmission of influenza from health care personnel to patients can create serious health care problems, especially among those who are at high risk for complications related to influenza.
The 2007-2008 “Best Practices in Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Programs“ initiative is a recognition campaign that is designed to identify the top three organizations that have the most successful programs and outcomes for increasing the seasonal influenza vaccination rates of their employees. Success stories will be compiled into an article describing the most successful strategies utilized by these organizations in their seasonal influenza vaccination programs to achieve a significant increase in the seasonal influenza vaccination rates among registered nurses and other HCP. Recognized facilities will be presented with an award by ANA commending the excellent leadership demonstrated in increasing influenza vaccination rates of registered nurses and other HCP.
REVIEW CRITERIA:
Selection of the top three programs will be based on program effectiveness and relevance and evaluated according to the program criteria. Applicants are asked to submit in writing a description of their program. Important attributes of your facility’s immunization program to be include in the description are: the degree to which nursing and other leadership administrators were involved in the influenza vaccination program planning, the quantitative tracking of the program (please supply measures of effectiveness), the educational aspects of the program, qualitative data demonstrating success, workplace safety efforts to protect those administering the vaccine, and accessibility of the program.
Your submitted material should not exceed 15 pages of description and supporting documentation. Submitted material should be in English, a font of 12 or above and double-spaced.
APPLICATION DETAILS:
The deadline for submission of facility programs is April 18, 2008. Submitted programs will be reviewed and the top five facilities will be notified by June 6, 2008. Program descriptions (saved as a Microsoft Word compatible file) should be submitted as an e-mail attachment to: katie.slavin@ana.org. When submitting your material please title the e-mail subject heading with this title: ANA’s 2007-2008 Best Practices in Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Program Recognition Campaign.
Questions may be directed to: Katie Slavin at (301) 628-5138 or Nancy Hughes at (301) 628-5021.
Please, include your organization’s name, the contact person and contact information including e-mail address in your application.
This program is made possible through funding by sanofi pasteur.