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Taking a second look: immunization requirements for nursing students.

Article Excerpt
ABSTRACT To comply with clinical agency agreements, nursing administrators and faculty need to be attentive to the management of immunization requests, especially those that are divergent from CDC or state recommendations. As nursing students usually bear the cost of additional immunizations and testing, immunization requirements may represent a barrier in using all available clinical sites. Medical insurers will often reject payment for immunization tests or vaccines that are identified as unnecessary or inconsistent with state or national recommendations. The creation of a consistent immunization process that addresses all guidelines is recommended.

This scene is familiar to nurse educators. In the rush at the start of a semester, when course and clinical organization tasks are at their greatest, nurse faculty use precious planning time to ascertain that students have met the program's immunization requirements. THIS ARTICLE SUGGESTS STRATEGIES THAT MIGHT BE USED TO STREAMLINE THE PROCESSING OF IMMUNIZATION INFORMATION.

Immunization requirements for nursing programs are based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state regulations, and clinical agency contracts. The verification process is complicated by the number of institutional contracts that nursing programs have in force, students who are admitted late, out-of-state students, students born outside the United States, and the diverse age range of current nursing students.

Considerable evidence exists that medical centers have differing requirements and that nursing programs are experiencing difficulty in getting students to comply with immunization regulations. Consider some policies retrieved from nursing program handbooks available on university websites:

"Students who do not turn in their immunization form, PPD, health clearance, copy of First Aid card and copy of their CPR card by the deadline listed above will lose one letter grade in the clinical experience courses for that semester. In addition, students will be unable to attend clinical which is counted as an unexcused absence and may also jeopardize their grade" (1).

"If documentation of University required immunizations is not presented to Student Health Services on or before the first day of enrollment, the student shall have 30 calendar days from the first day of classes to obtain the required immunizations. Students who fail to comply with the immunization requirements by the end of the specified 30 calendar days will be administratively withdrawn from the University by the University Registrar" (2).

Program policies are often written after a compliance concern has presented itself. Judging from the potential sanctions listed in handbooks for not submitting proper immunization documentation, immunization requirements may represent a barrier in using all available clinical openings. This is clearly an important problem for nursing programs.

This article is written from the perspective of one state, Massachusetts, where the author is employed. resides. However, most of the problems presented are universal. It is imperative to create a consistent immunization process that addresses all guidelines, noting that recommendations change frequently.

Immunization Requirements In many nursing programs, the university or college health service is responsible for certifying that students have met the prescribed list of immunization requirements. In smaller nursing programs, programs that admit registered nurses only, and colleges that do not have full health services or have health services that only certify state-required immunizations, nurse faculty...