Immunizing North Carolina's Nurses

Learning Objectives for this Presentation:
1. By the end of the presentation participants will be able to understand opportunities and barriers to immunizing North Carolina's nurses against influenza
2. By the end of the presentation participants will be able to describe the influenza outreach campaign among NC's nurses
3. By the end of the presentation participants will be able to highlight ongoing strategies to promote nurses' vaccinations

Background:
Current research emphasizes the importance of immunizing health care workers against influenza. Select 2005 NIC presentations reported the necessity of educating and immunizing nurses because nurses can influence co-workers and patients to receive influenza vaccine. North Carolina's Immunization Branch partnered with the NC Nurse's Association (NCNA) with the intent to increase influenza vaccination rates among North Carolina's nurses.

Setting:
Wherever nurses work

Population:
NC's Nurses

Project Description:
1. Baseline Survey – emailed to NCNA members to determine flu immunization beliefs and practices.
2. Intervention/Campaign – based on survey data, a campaign was designed to boost acceptance of nurses receiving the flu shot.
The campaign was a regional competition with incentives. The NCNA region with the highest percentage of nurses immunized during the contest won a scholarship. Additionally, a randomly chosen participant won a gift card.
NCNA staff distributed the information about the campaign and competition to NCNA regional nursing directors, who in turn distributed it to nurses in their areas. All nurses (not just NCNA members) were encouraged to participate.
In fall of 2006, over 3,850 nurses participated and were immunized.
3. Evaluation Survey – emailed following flu season to determine if the competition had any affect on nurses' immunization rates.

Results/Lessons Learned:
• Nurses give many of the same reasons as the public for avoiding influenza immunizations
• Partnerships using group memberships effectively reach target group
• Strong partnerships can influence other groups to join the project
• More outreach is needed to contact non-NCNA members