Implementing and Sustaining School-Located Influenza Vaccination Programs

Abstract

Local health departments have typically led school-located influenza vaccination (SLIV) programs, assuming resource-intensive roles in design, coordination, and vaccination. This level of involvement is often not financially sustainable over time. Five diverse school districts in Los Angeles County designed, implemented, refined, and institutionalized their own SLIV programs over 3 years by identifying and maximizing their existing resources. School district nurses and other staff served as project leaders, designing their own vaccination administration process, parental consent, and clinic promotional models. Two districts expanded their existing school immunization clinics and three developed their vaccination capacity with community partnerships. Each district tailored its program in creative resource-minimum ways, sometimes abandoning or adopting new methods/technologies based on the effectiveness in previous seasons. The shared experiences and strategies between district nurses and the local health department described in this article illustrate a district’s ability to develop a tailor-made SLIV program, often in less than ideal conditions.