It’s finally here! After weeks of anticipation, we’ve finally launched Stats4Vax: Improving teen vaccination rates one school nurse at a time (Stats4Vax), a new program powered by NASN and Sanofi Pasteur to help improve teen vaccination rates. This new program provides support, materials, and tools for school nurses and other healthcare providers to help guide conversations with parents/guardians to see that their teens are up-to-date on their immunizations.
As school nurses, we know that:
- Vaccines are the best way to help protect teens against serious infectious diseases.1
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that teens receive the following four vaccines:
- Meningococcal vaccine (two doses)
- Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine (full 3-dose series)
- Tdap vaccine
- Flu vaccine (each year)
- Despite this, millions of teens remain under-vaccinated against these diseases.2,3
Brand New Stats4Vax Resource Library:
As part of the Stats4Vax program, we’ve created the Stats4Vax Resource Library, where you can find easy-to-use materials that can be tailored to meet the needs of your student population. Materials include a letter home to parents/guardians; a talk track with messages to help you proactively discuss the importance of vaccination with students; and content to help educate parents/guardians about teen vaccination to use via social media, school newsletters, or the school website. Check out the brand new Stats4Vax Resource Library!
Looking for a Challenge?
NASN is piloting the first-ever Stats4Vax Challenge in North Carolina, California, and Florida. The focus of the Challenge is to uncover and improve student vaccination rates in high schools in these select states over the course of one year. Nurses in these states will identify their school’s baseline teen vaccination rates, opt-in to the Challenge and use the Stats4Vax materials, and then report their schools’ rates at the end of the 2016-2017 school year. If you are a nurse in North Carolina, California, or Florida, please sign up for the Challenge!
The Grand Prize:
The grand prize winner of the Stats4Vax Challenge will be announced in August 2017. What is the grand prize? It’s an all-expense paid trip to the 2018 NASN Annual Conference or an NASN regional conference! So start tracking those stats!
Let’s come together and work to improve teen vaccination rates to help keep our students healthy, in school, and ready to learn. Please check out the brand new Stats4Vax Resource Library and/or sign up for the Stats4Vax Challenge! We can’t wait to see how your efforts help improve teen vaccination rates this year!
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References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016). Vaccines for Your Children: Protect Your Child at Every Age. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/protecting-children/index.html.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). National, Regional, State, and Selected Local Area Vaccination Coverage Among Adolescents Aged 13–17 Years — United States, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6429a3.htm.
- United States Census Bureau. (2013). Age and Sex Composition in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/population/age/data/2012comp.html.
