Date of Award

Summer 2021

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Karen Johnson

Second Advisor

Gena Coomes

Third Advisor

Anuradha Ghosh

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to increase PPSV23 vaccination rates in adults over the age of 65 years in a Midwestern primary care clinic.

For this project, staff was educated regarding interventions including patient awareness, provider recommendation, staff and provider education, vaccine access, use of the immunization information systems (IIS) and appropriate use of electronic health record (EHR) reminders that have been shown to increase vaccination rates.

Prior to the intervention, data was retrieved, and it was found that between April 1st-May 31st 2020, there were 162 patients over the age of 65 that presented to the clinic. Of those 112 were already vaccinated or received the PPSV23 vaccination, indicating that the clinic had a 69% vaccination rate at baseline. After the project intervention and during the 8-week study period of April 1st-May 31st 2021 there were 190 patients over the age of 65 seen and 151 of those patients were either already vaccinated or received the PPSV23 vaccination. This increased the rate of vaccination to 79%. Those who continued to refuse the vaccination were given a questionnaire to asking for potential reasons.

Vaccination rates increased in the studied primary care clinic from 69% to 79% after staff education which included provider recommendation, staff and provider education, vaccine access, the use of the IIS and appropriate use of EHR reminders. This shows these intervention techniques are successful at increasing vaccination rates in a primary care clinic.

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