BACKGROUND:
The success of the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) “Immunizations from A to Z” (A-Z) training has led to the initiation of a county satellite program. This outreach partnership between ISDH Immunization and Health Educators and Vanderburgh County Immunization Nurses is the beginning of involving local health departments.

OBJECTIVE:
To increase county involvement in Immunization education by increasing the frequency and availability of trainings. Local contribution will serve to improve public and private immunization practices.

METHOD:
The educators recognized the enthusiasm of Vanderburgh County Nurses to become involved in the “A-Z” training. All educational resources were shared with the nurses with ample time for study and review. Active communication of the educators' expectations to the county nurses enabled training of the trainers via phone and email, providing immediate access to inform county nurses of revised materials. Vanderburgh County was not financially burdened as ISDH assumes the costs of materials and shipping. ISDH will evaluate and support the county nurses' first several trainings, which will be followed by a monthly check-in and a bi-annual review.

RESULT:
Vanderburgh and surrounding counties are at a geographically hard-to-reach area at the southwestern tip of Indiana and will now have better access to immunization education. The satellite program offers the same uniform “A-Z” training and will be a test program for ISDH to determine if involvement of other county health departments is beneficial.

CONCLUSION:
In order to educate larger numbers of immunization health care workers, the initiation of a local satellite program is necessary. The success of the Indiana Immunization Program continues to strengthen the educational initiatives of “A-Z” and disseminate the training to local health departments.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Participants will learn how state-wide immunization training benefits providers and how to implement a “train the trainer” program in local health departments.