Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Document Type
Project Paper
School
Zvart Onanian School of Nursing
Department
Nursing
Date of Original Version
4-21-2023
Abstract
Seasonal influenza is a serious public health problem that is responsible for a significant number of illnesses, hospitalizations, and death. Influenza is of particular concern for individuals 65 years of age and older living in long-term care facilities. Historically health care workers working in long-term care facilities have had the lowest influenza vaccination rates compared to other health care facilities. Despite numerous efforts to increase health care worker vaccination rates, vaccination rates remain low. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to understand long-term care facility health care workers' knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes toward influenza vaccination with the aim of increasing vaccination rates by 5% from the previous influenza season. Methods included health care worker interviews and an educational toolkit with targeted themes identified from the interview data from two participating long-term care facilities. Results identified several key areas for education. Preliminary post-intervention data demonstrated an increase in influenza vaccination rates for both long-term care facilities from the previous influenza season. Conclusion: Based on feedback from health care workers who participated in the intervention, education is clearly important and should be a priority in facilities with low health care worker vaccination rates. Ensuring health care workers have easy access to getting vaccinated at their place of employment is a method to ensure access is convenient.
Recommended Citation
Chicoine, Wendy A., "Increasing Influenza Vaccination Rates Among Long-Term Care Facility Health Care Workers" (2023). Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview. 495.
https://digitalcommons.ric.edu/etd/495