KEYWORDS:
School Nurses
Immunization Education

BACKGROUND:
In Maricopa County there are 878 public, private, and charter schools with 544,617 students in grades K-12. In 1997 Arizona began the implementation of a Hepatitis B and 2nd MMR rule that added two grades to the requirement each year until 2006. We have many students from Mexico, other foreign countries, changes in vaccines and have many new school nurses every year. These factors have contributed to confused and frustrated school nurses. There is a once-a-year conference for new nurses and they can call Community Health Nursing on an individual basis to get specific questions answered. A program was needed to reach the largest number of nurses and students within resource limitations.

OBJECTIVE(S):
1. To educate school nurses regarding immunization requirements 2. Develop positive relationships 3. Improve immunization compliance/reduce school exclusions

METHOD(S):
A curriculum was developed to provide essential immunization information in a format that could be delivered in 30 minutes or less at district school nurse meetings. The CHN contacted district nurses to present the concept, distribute materials, and get on meeting agendas. Materials to accompany the didactic program are distributed in a packet format. Flyers describing this class as well as the Immunization Education Class provided at the Department are distributed to all districts. A follow-up class is scheduled as requested. Individual consultation to school nurses is also encouraged.

RESULT(S):
In 2000 and 2110 22 classes were presented with 337 nurses in attendance. They represented 226,531 students (15.9% of schools and 25% of all students).

CONCLUSIONS(S):
With limited resources (.34 FTE) an effective outreach education program can be developed/implemented. The positive, collegial relationship that has developed has long-term implications for improved imunization status.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Describe strategies to outreach to school nurses.
Identify key information to be included in a school nurse immunization education curriculum.