Implementation and education of new federal guidelines on the vaccine for children’s program at rural health Inc.

International Conference on Nursing & Emergency Medicine

December 02-04, 2013 Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Jennifer R. Walker

Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Rural Health, a federally qualified health center, has certain guidelines they have to comply with in order to receive federal and state funding. Rural health offers many services to the rural community with the largest service provided being the vaccine for children program. The federally funded vaccine for children program mandated new guidelines September 2012, changing the eligibility requirements for pediatric patient?s ages 0-18 years. To be eligible to receive vaccines from the vaccine for children program a patient has to be eligible for Medicaid, uninsured or underinsured. To stay in compliance with the new guidelines protocols had to be changed and implemented throughout rural health facilities. The implementation process started with receptionist checking the patients. Verification of insurance and vaccination coverage had to be completed on all pediatric patients in the rural health system. As mandated by the state a second supply of vaccines was purchased for private insurance patients only. To complete the implementation process, nursing staff was educated on the new guidelines being implemented, their new role with ensuring the mandated forms were in each chart, and the safe handling and administration of pediatric immunizations. A comparative analysis was done post implementation of guidelines, which revealed a 100% retention rate of information supplied and a 50% increase in chart compliance.

Biography :

Jennifer R. Walker has completed her Master?s Degree in Nursing at the age of 37 years from Saint Xavier University. She is currently employed at the Rural Health Clinic in Anna, Illinois where she works as part of the nursing staff providing quality nursing care to those in underserved areas.