Teaching Experience: Vaccines in a Childcare Center
GCU: NRS-427V
Stephanie Stern
June 28, 2015

Teaching Experience: Vaccines in a Childcare Center Education is one of the most important aspects of a nurse’s role with patients. This is especially true of the community health nurse. The area of primary prevention and health promotion is gaining special popularity as educational material for nurses as healthcare is shifting towards heavily focusing on prevention of diseases and preservation of health. This teaching experience featured information about vaccines that would be pertinent to teach to parents of all ages and nationalities utilizing a childcare center in Tempe, AZ. The topic presented was about relevant information concerning vaccines that parents of children ages 0-10 years old would be interested in learning. The information was delivered via a power point presentation which included graphics, open dialogue, a quiz section at the end of the power point and a question and answer segment. The nursing diagnoses identified were, “risk for infection related to incomplete immunization series, knowledge deficit (parent) related to potential side effects of vaccinations and readiness for enhanced knowledge related to health promotion and vaccinations” (Clark, 2003). Traits to gauge readiness to learn were identified as, “motivation, maturation, past experience, activity, practice, reinforcement and transfer of learning,” (Knowles, 1990). In this teaching experience the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning is used through the creation of a power point presentation to show the information to the audience using both words and pictures. The HP2020 goal related to this teaching topic is Immunizations and Infectious Disease with specific regards to the objectives aimed to, ““reduce, eliminate, or maintain elimination of cases of vaccine-preventable disease,” to “achieve and maintain effective vaccination coverage levels for universally recommended vaccines among young children,” to “maintain vaccination coverage levels for children in kindergarten,” and to “increase routine vaccination coverage levels for adolescents,” (Healthy People 2020). The four teaching objectives were for parents to be able to identify community benefits of vaccinations, identify one resource to assist with keeping track of children’s’ immunization records, identify one communicable disease that has been eradicated in the US due to vaccines and identify one consequence that would result from cessation of vaccinations. Evaluation of these objectives to be done by asking parents to answer short answer questions at the conclusion of the power point to review the information that was covered. Evaluation of the goal to be completed through follow-up with the childcare center to determine any change in the number of vaccinated children and children whose vaccinations remained up to date. Evaluation of the lesson and teacher to be achieved by handing out a survey post-education requesting that all the parents in attendance provide feedback on the experience. Potential barriers identified were language, parents having previously received false information about vaccines and time. These matters were addressed by having pre-planned communication with the childcare center to find out about language and time constraints of the parents and by presenting solid facts from credible resources to dispel any false information. The presentation opened with startling facts about vaccinations to draw in the parents attention and closed by presenting the parents with a resource to download an app onto their phone which will help track their child’s vaccinations, give recommendations for vaccinations based on travel and give reminders of when to go have their child vaccinated. Epidemiological rationale for vaccinations, according to the Centers for Disease Control, “statistics demonstrate dramatic declines in vaccine-preventable disease when compared with the pre-vaccine era,” (CDC, 2014). In addition according to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Immunization currently averts an estimated two to three million deaths every year in all age groups from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), and measles,” (WHO, 2014). The teaching experience was a first time experience and generated a great deal of anxiety and nervousness. The anxiety was attributed to having to give a presentation to a group of adults who I had never met before and whose viewpoints about vaccinations I was not familiar with. The childcare center was very helpful and appreciative of the offered education; the center provided a projector and projection screen for me to show the power point on. Prior to the planned teaching experience, I contacted the childcare center to ascertain a best time for parent attendance and to find out if there were any potential language barriers. The childcare center was able to help me schedule a time to best fit the parent’s schedules and informed me that there were no language barriers to which they were aware. In total about 10 parents attended the teaching experience; I had the opportunity to gather some demographic information regarding the parents prior to beginning the power point. Of the parents, the ages ranged between 24-36 years old, young to middle adult, most parents had only one child with two parents having two children, 7 of the 10 parents were employed full-time and 3 of the parents were employed part-time. All of the parents in attendance identified as non-Hispanic Caucasian Americans; the childcare center states this is not an even representation of their clientele. The parents all identified as middle/working class, all parents reported having health insurance at the present time. Fortunately, I did not have any extreme anti-vaccination parents in the audience; all parents reported being up to date with their children’s vaccinations, six of the parents reported having mild to moderate difficulty in keeping track of vaccination schedules. All parents reported being unaware of specific vaccinations required for travel. After covering the basic demographic information, I began the presentation by introducing myself and telling the audience a little background on my education, work experience, and career goals. I went through all the power point slides, covered the short quiz slide and opened the floor to questions. After that I assisted the parents who needed help finding and downloading an app from the resource website; I encouraged the parents to share this website with friends and family. Based on the surveys and the responses I received from the parents during the presentation, I feel as though the information was well received. The comment cards relayed that the presentation was easy to understand and follow and that the information made sense. The childcare center thanked me for my presentation and said that I was welcome to follow-up with them regarding the centers vaccination rates and number of parents who viewed the power point outside of my teaching experience. The surveys also pointed out areas for improvement, which I agreed with in retrospect. After the presentation, I felt that most of the information that I included in my presentation was not new information to the group of parents I presented to. The parents were quite well educated about vaccinations, had I known this coming into the teaching experience, I would’ve included information of a higher educational caliber. Strong points to this experience were in the delivery of the information. I feel that I presented the information in a very easy to follow and logical order.

Reference:
Clark, M. (2003). Community health nursing: Caring for populations (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Global Immunization Data. (2014, July 1). Retrieved June 28, 2015, from http://www.who.int/immunization/monitoring_surveillance/global_immunization_data.pdf?ua=1

Immunization and Infectious Diseases. (n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2015, from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/immunization-and-infectious-diseases/objectives

M. Knowles. The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species, 4th ed. Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Co., 1990.

What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations? (2014, May 19). Retrieved June 28, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/whatifstop.htm