BACKGROUND:
The childhood immunization schedule grows continually more complex with at least seventeen scheduled immunizations prior to age 24 months. In the interest of public health, immunization laws require childcare centers to maintain immunization records and enforce immunization standards for children who attend. Childcare providers generally have little formal education in infectious diseases, but a sense of the importance of immunization among the staff is assumed.

OBJECTIVE:
To measure the knowledge of child care providers and the value of our educational seminar to increase the knowledge of childcare providers in the area of immunization.

METHOD:
We created a 60 minute presentation including information on immunizations and presented it at 5 area daycare centers. We administered a pretest and post-test measuring attitude toward and knowledge of vaccines and the diseases they prevent to childcare providers attending the presentations. The results were compared using chi square tests, t tests, and Mann Whitney-U tests.

RESULT:
Forty-seven daycare staff members responded to the pre-test, and 43 responded to the post-test. The median age was 30-39 years, and 21% reported that they had health conditions indicating need for annual influenza vaccination. Performance on the knowledge questions improved following the educational presentation (mean scores 4.4 +0.24 vs. 5.0 +0.16; p<0.04; t test). Influenza immunization rates among the childcare staff who participated increased from 30% last year to 60% for the current season (p=0.006) based on stated intentions.

CONCLUSION:
Our educational presentation increased childcare staff knowledge of vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases and may improve immunization rates among the staff.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Describe the impact that an educational presentation can have on the knowledge and attitudes of child care providers.