title: Evaluation of registered nurses follow-up on the reported immunization status of children attending child care centres.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether follow-up by nurses increased the reported rate of correctly immunized preschoolers in child care centres (CCCs). Records from 14 randomly selected CCCs from the Hamilton-Wentworth area (n = 514 records) were assessed for the number of correctly immunized preschoolers by two nurses operating in different centres. The nurses advised the centres about all incomplete records and reminded parents to update their child's immunization status. One nurse revisited all her assigned centres two to five weeks later. Both nurses returned to the CCCs to reevaluate the records two to eight months after the initial contact. 382 records were available for the second review (25% drop out rate). The reported rates increased significantly for all immunizations. There was no difference when the follow-up intervention was greater. This study suggests that monitoring records improves the completeness of the records in CCCs; 19.9% of child records were updated (76 of 382). In 3.4% of cases (13 of 382), the children received immunizations that had been previously missed.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, On.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: O'Mara
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Isaacs
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000592:standards*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009731:Nursing Audit; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009864:Ontario; D012573:School Nursing / Q000592:standards*