Bringing Immunity to Every Community: Nursing Competency, Action, & Advocacy

Background:  American Nurses Association (ANA) has been awarded a two-year CDC cooperative agreement funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to focus on maximizing RN’s key role in immunizations.  “Bringing Immunity to Every Community” is organized around three goals:

• Competency: Increasing vaccine knowledge and administration skills;
• Action: Encouraging nurses to be vaccinated; and
• Advocacy: Positioning nurses as champions of immunization to colleagues, patients, and the public.

Setting:  Various nursing practice settings

Population:  Registered Nurses

Project Description:  Major component of the initiative is www.anaimmunize.org; a website designed as a gallery of nurse-specific immunization resources, categorized by nursing role, specialty, and patient population. A popular feature of the website is the bi-monthly newsletter, ANA ImmuNews, featuring summarized nursing-focused abstracts from national media and peer-reviewed journals. The second component is the ANA Immunity Award; a monthly to recognize nursing leadership and immunization best practice models.  The final component is a series of media pieces designed to increase vaccinator competency and risk communication techniques. The media components (journal articles, educational inserts, social media blogs, and a webcast) were developed both independently by ANA and via partnerships with Every Child by Two and American Nurse Today. 

 

Results/Lessons Learned:  This project served to not only educate and motivate nurses but to position the nursing profession as a key player in immunization advocacy and policy efforts on a national level. Completed initiative activities far exceeded the proposed number of deliverables submitted in the original RFP.  ANA was accepted as non-voting Liaison Member of ACIP, attended NVAC meetings, and joined national health professional organizations as signatories on several immunization policy open letters. Estimated potential combined reach of  program’s efforts is nearly 500,000 through ANA membership and formalized relationships with state and affiliate associations.