Below, you will find information on conducting vaccination campaigns. These campaigns should be used IN ADDITION to an education campaign. Remember, the focus should be education to drive vaccination. This is possible even if you don’t have a health clinic on campus.
If you aren’t sure which plan works for you, check out this decision tree.
There are three vaccination plans laid out below:
1. Campus health plan: For campuses that have a health clinic on site that can administer vaccines and accept multiple forms of insurance/payment.
2. Community partners plan: You can always refer to off-campus partners in your community. Health departments, pharmacies and hospitals or clinics can be the vaccinators.
3. Mass vaccination clinic: Planning a single day vaccination clinic (or series), which may involve both campus employees and students as well as outside partners, can bring vaccination on campus even if you don’t have a viable campus health clinic.
Campus Health Campaign
The campus health clinic is an invaluable partner in an HPV vaccination campaign. There are several ways a campus health center can be helpful:
- Assist with designing HPV vaccination education.
- Standing orders. Use standing orders to create vaccine-only visits for students. This way, the student does not need an individualized physician order for their vaccination. Standing orders authorize nurses and pharmacists to administer vaccines to all persons meeting certain criteria. Standing orders include:
- Protocol to identify patients
- Procedures to provide information on the risks and benefits of vaccines
- Process to record refusals or contraindications
- Approved vaccine delivery protocol
- Quality assurance and documentation procedures
- Notify patients: Send reminder/recall letters. Reminder/recall is a proven strategy to increase immunization coverage levels.
- Use every opportunity: Use all patient encounters as opportunities to vaccinate, including sick and well visits. Mild acute illness with or without fever is not a contraindication to vaccination.
Local Health Agency Campaign
If you don’t have the capacity to offer vaccines on campus, local partners may be able to offer vaccines to students. Examples of potential partnerships include pharmacies, local health systems /hospitals, and the public health department.
Local Health Department
State and local public health departments are a great resource for vaccination information. Whenever you engage in a public health campaign, the health department is a great partner to support your efforts. Talking points to cover with your local health department should include:
- Vaccination services available and hours of operation
- Types of payment /insurance accepted
- Other local resources you might consider
Pharmacies
In the state of Indiana, a pharmacist may administer the HPV vaccine according to a protocol approved by a physician. This means that most commercial pharmacies with a physician medical director can administer the vaccine. You can speak to the pharmacies in your area and find out their protocol. Some pharmacies may have the capacity to hold a clinic at your campus as well.
Local Health Systems / Hospitals
Local health systems may want to help with your vaccination efforts. Physician offices may have barriers to accepting students as one-time patients due to the need to register the patient and assign them to a physician for quality metrics. For this reason, it is more convenient to seek out service providers who commonly see patients for urgent or irregular visits. Federally Qualified Health Clinics (FQHCs), urgent care facilities and travel vaccination clinics may be good options, too. One consideration to keep in mind is that the facility should have the capacity to accept multiple forms of payment, including both private insurance and government-funded programs.
Mass Vaccination Event Campaign
A one-day-event can be a big undertaking but can help provide a large number of vaccinations at a time and in an area that is convenient for students. A mass vaccination campaign can include elements of all the above campaigns. We have assembled a document on the Resources page that can guide you through designing your own mass vaccination event.