Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

Spring 5-2019

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4242-7315

Document Type

DNP Project

Department

Nursing

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Faisal Aboul-Enein

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Sandra Cleveland

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Sharisse Hebert

Abstract

Influenza is a preventable communicable illness that has a significant impact on people of all ages. In 2018 it was estimated that 80,000 people died of influenza-related illnesses. Infants and elderly people are among the most vulnerable populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Healthy People 2020 recommend that health care facilities have a 90% vaccination rate. Despite the recommendations and a mandatory directive, many facilities within the Veterans Health Administration struggle to reach influenza vaccination rates above 60%. Pender’s health promotion model was used as the theoretical framework to explore the reasons why health care workers refuse the vaccine and whether an influenza educational intervention would increase willingness to accept the vaccine. To study this phenomenon, the researcher used a one-group pretest-posttest design and purposive sampling to recruit 64 unvaccinated health care workers at a Veterans Health Administration facility in the southeastern United States. Participants voluntarily enrolled in the study and completed a demographic profile and influenza pretest questionnaire. After a 15-minute educational intervention, participants completed an influenza posttest questionnaire. Results showed that a 15-minute educational presentation about influenza was effective in enhancing knowledge about goals for influenza vaccination among federal health care workers and willingness of unvaccinated federal employees to receive a flu vaccination. Among the 64 participants, knowledge of the Healthy People 2020 and The Joint Commission goal of reaching a 90% vaccination rate by 2020 increased from 54.7% to 87.5%. Participants’ willingness to receive the vaccination increased from 47.5% to 65.6%. Both were statistically significant improvements. Awareness of VHA Directive 1192 increased marginally, from 89.1% at pretest to 96.9% at posttest.

Keywords: health care workers, influenza prevention, declination programs, hospital employees, mandates

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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