Communicating the benefits of combination vaccines to parents and health care providers.
Infants may receive as many as 5 separate injections at an office visit in order to comply with the 2002 childhood immunization schedule. Many parents and healthcare providers disagree with administering 4 or 5 injections at one visit, and therefore may delay some injections until another visit. This practice may lead to decreased compliance and can increase costs for the parent. New combination vaccines will help to simplify the immunization schedule, and health care providers will need to be able to address parental concerns regarding these vaccines. Nurses are often responsible for administering vaccines in the office setting, and therefore are also influential in deciding which vaccines should be ordered. The purpose of this article is to educate nurses on communicating the benefits of combination vaccines to parents and other healthcare providers.
Koslap-Petraco
Mary Beth
MB
Suffolk County Department of Health Sciences, Amityville, NY 11701, USA. PetracoNP@aol.com
Parsons
Tamra
T
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003142:Communication; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007115:Immunization Schedule; D007223:Infant; D007258:Informed Consent; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009819:Office Visits; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D012449:Safety; D014481:United States; D017778:Vaccines, Combined / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000276:immunology
D017778:Vaccines, Combined