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Creating health care partners for life

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Note from Dr. Schaffner: I am very pleased to share this guest blog from Donna Mazyck, RN, MS, NCSN, a colleague who sits on the Board of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, and feels as passionately about vaccines and good preventive care as I do. Ms. Mazyck is a state school nurse consultant in Maryland and served as president of the National Association of School Nurses from 2007-2009. Her school nursing experience has been with adolescents in comprehensive and alternative high schools.

The benefits of adolescents participating in their preventive health can last a lifetime. I work with adolescents a lot and firmly believe, as Borzekowski notes in a 2009 article in Pediatrics “…health attitudes and behaviors formed during childhood greatly predict adult health patterns.” Disease prevention, through immunizations, offers one area of personal health care knowledge in which adolescents may gain understanding.

They cannot learn if we do not teach

Health care providers and health promoters need to use one-on-one time with adolescents to talk to them about vaccine preventable diseases, such as meningococcal disease, pertussis, hepatitis, influenza, and human papillomavirus. Health education curricula should cover disease prevention, including how and why vaccines work. Discussing recommended vaccinations for adolescents in classroom settings provides another layer of information. School nurses review immunization records to determine if immunizations required for school entry are current. The next step, informing parents or guardians and students of required vaccines allows the school nurse teachable moments related to health literacy on this topic.

Using vaccine knowledge today and as adults

Adolescents need to know about their immunization status for a variety of reasons post high school. Postsecondary school admission may require proof of immunization. Certain work settings may require vaccinations. Even while in high school, our teachings will have value. Adolescents can learn record-keeping methods that will enable easy access to their immunization status. Developing and maintaining a personal health folder at home, including their vaccination records, sets up an expectation that adolescents will know their information, or at least where to find it.

Becoming an informed adult health care consumer begins in adolescence. What role can you take in helping adolescents gain knowledge about personal health related to disease prevention?