Role of Nursing Professional Vaccine Strategies

Talking with Parents

about Vaccines for Infants

Strategies for Health Care Professionals

Immunization professionals and parents agree: times

have changed.

Because of questions or concerns about vaccines, well-child

visits can be stressful for parents. As their infant’s health

care provider, you remain parents’ most trusted source of

information about vaccines. This is true even for parents with

the most questions and concerns. Your personal relationship

uniquely qualifies you to help support parents in understanding

and choosing vaccinations.

However, time for infant health evaluation at each well visit

is at a premium, as you check physical, cognitive, and other

milestones and advise parents on what to expect in the coming

months. Therefore, making time to talk about vaccines may be

stressful for you. But when an infant is due to receive vaccines,

nothing is more important than making the time to assess

the parents’ information needs as well as the role they desire

to play in making decisions for their child’s health, and then

following up with communication that meets their needs.

When it comes to communication, you may find that similar

information—be it science or anecdote or some mix of the

two—works for most parents you see. But keep a watchful eye

to be sure that you are connecting with each parent to maintain

trust and keep lines of communication open.

We hope that these brief reminders—and the materials that

you, your staff, and parents can find on our website— will help

ensure your continued success in immunizing infants and

children. Success may mean that all vaccines are accepted when

you recommend them, or that some vaccines are scheduled

for another day. If a parent refuses to vaccinate, success may

simply mean keeping the door open for future discussions

about choosing vaccination.

THIS RESOURCE COVERS:

What you may hear from parents about

their vaccine safety questions and how

to effectively address them

Proven communication strategies and

tips for having a successful vaccine

conversation with parents

This brochure is part of a comprehensive

set of educational materials for health

care professionals and parents available at

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/conversations

Nurses, physician assistants, and other office staff

play a key role in establishing and maintaining

a practice-wide commitment to communicating

effectively about vaccines and maintaining

high vaccination rates: from providing parents

with educational materials, to being available

to answer their questions, to making sure that

families who may opt for extra visits for vaccines

make and keep vaccine appointments.