The 2011 Voices of Meningitis Challenge Winners

Field: Health Professions (Health Sciences)

T he Voices of Meningitis Challenge is a program designed to encourage school nurses to educate local schools and communities about meningococcal disease vaccination and to recognize them for their efforts. The November NASN School Nurse issue’s focus on infectious disease provides a perfect opportunity to highlight this initiative. I was privileged to serve as the panel moderator at the NASN 43rd Annual Conference’s Voices of Meningitis Challenge. Five nurses received recognition for their unique projects. Adalia Del Bosque, RN, BSN, of McAllen, Texas, created a Vaccinate Before You Graduate campaign for high school seniors in conjunction with her school’s “College Night.” The program helped educate students about the disease, including holding an on-site vaccination clinic for students. Adalia was able to organize this by first pitching the idea to her school’s coordinator of counseling and guidance. Once approval was received, she contacted the local Health and Human Services office to put the event and clinic together. In total, more than 100 students were vaccinated. Through the Jamie Schanbaum Act, which requires Texas college students to be vaccinated against meningitis (Texas Legislature Online, 2011), Adalia learned that College Nights offer an excellent opportunity to provide meningococcal immunizations and/or education, as these events attract a large number of adolescents and their parents. Hosting a vaccination clinic on the school’s College Night allowed students to learn about various colleges and financial aid and to receive their required immunizations all in one night. Christine Chapman, RN, BSN, MA, NCSN, of Hazelwood, Missouri, used various Voices of Meningitis materials to present to other district nurses at a school district health fair as well as to parents at meet-the-teacher and open house nights to help raise awareness about the importance of meningitis vaccination. Christine advised other nurses considering similar awareness efforts to work with school administrators and teachers to organize activities they liked to pursue and then to visit the Voices of Meningitis website (http://www.voicesofmeningitis.org/) to see what materials were available and order the ones they wanted to use in their presentations. Christine further reported that implementing her programs took a minimal amount of time, and best of all, she found that most parents and faculty were very receptive to the message. Rebecca Vogt, RNC, BSN, of Claypool, Indiana, managed to vaccinate every single 5th-grade student in her district using the Children and Hoosier Immunization Registry Program to identify students still in need of immunizations. Such a huge initiative was not without challenges, but Rebecca commented that as a school nurse, she has been trained to turn obstacles into opportunities. Initially, she found that many students were not in the Children and Hoosier Immunization Registry Program database, so she had to discern who was not included and then go through each student’s file and find their current immunization status. Once current vaccination status of each student was determined, she sent mailings to parents of children who still needed to be vaccinated to obtain written permission and conducted three spring vaccination clinics. Rebecca also included an education component to her initiative by visiting each classroom to describe the dangers of meningitis and why it is important to prevent (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2008). She utilized the videos provided by Voices of Meningitis and gave each student Voices of Meningitis materials to take home to their parents. By doing this, she was able to reach all 5th graders and their parents and educate them about the importance of keeping their vaccinations up to date. She also rewarded vaccinated students by letting them sign a poster she developed and by throwing them an outdoor pizza party! Rebecca also shared that her motivation in part came from the fact that her community had lost three college students to meningitis, and that hit home for her. She knew she had to do something to ensure that her students remained healthy and ready to learn.