Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1342648
February 22-March 29, 2021 18 Working Nurse l WorkingNurse.com Immunization, Then and Now VACCINE ADVOCACY ✚ Even if pediatrics is not your specialty, the nonprofit National Foundation for Infectious Diseases reminds us that all healthcare providers can play an important role in encouraging people to stay up to date on immunizations, whether it's help- ing to dispel misconceptions, connecting patients with appro- priate information or just encouraging them to make sure their children receive important vaccinations. As a nurse and pediatric nurse practitioner for many decades, this isn't simply an academic issue for me. Caring for children, well or ill, has given my professional life purpose, and drives my passion for enhancing wellness and preventing disease. WHILE HE DIDN'T actually invent the form of inoculation he dubbed "vac- cination," English physician and sci- entist Edward Jenner was one of the practice's most important pioneers and early advocates. As early as the 1760s, when Jenner was a teenage apprentice to a county doctor in South West England, many rural people believed that farmworkers exposed to vaccinia (cowpox) — a zoonotic infection common among dairy cattle — were much less suscepti- ble to smallpox. There had even been a few attempts to use cowpox to inocu- late humans against smallpox, although it wasn't yet a common practice. CONTROVERSIAL METHODS In May 1796, Jenner decided to test these theories, convincing his garden- er to allow him to inoculate the gar- dener's 8-year-old son with cowpox extracted from the lesions of a local dairymaid. Later that summer, Jenner deliberately exposed the boy to small- pox and found that the child was now apparently immune. Jenner self-published his findings in 1798 and began a tireless campaign to promote vaccination for the preven- tion of smallpox. His work remained highly contro- versial throughout his lifetime, but Jenner's efforts helped to establish vaccination's effectiveness as a means of preventing disease. Today, vaccinia inoculation is still used for short-term immunization and post-exposure prophylaxis for people exposed to smallpox. WN Vaccination Pioneer Edward Jenner (1749–1823) This English physician even coined the term "vaccination" BY AARON SEVERSON Not long ago, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement developed a framework for optimizing health system perform- ance. The framework is quite modest: Strive to improve the patient experience of care (even though shots may still hurt), improve population health and reduce the costs of healthcare. Providing immunizations to children — often available at low or no cost thanks to programs like Vaccines for Children — accomplishes all these goals. RUTH K. ROSENBLUM, RN, DNP, PNP-BC, is an associate professor of nursing at San Jose State University, a practicing pediatric nurse practitioner and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project. WN