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National Infant Immunization Week

How to Turn National Infant Immunization Week into a Celebration for Your Entire Practice

National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW) is just around the corner. From April 22-29, 2017, communities across the United States will highlight the importance of protecting infants from vaccine-preventable diseases and celebrate the achievements of immunization programs in promoting healthy communities. Since 1994, NIIW has been a way to focus attention on the benefits of maintaining high immunization rates in our community, state, and nationally.

Healthcare professionals like you are an important reason why we can celebrate high infant immunization rates. According to a national poll conducted by CDC in 2014, a doctor’s recommendation was the #1 reason that parents made sure their child got all of the recommended vaccines.

NIIW is a great opportunity for the entire practice—including physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and front office staff—to show parents that your practice strongly supports vaccination according to the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule. It’s also a good chance to let parents know that on-time vaccination is the norm, despite what they might hear in the media.

According to CDC’s national poll, most parents (86%) said that their youngest child received all of the recommended vaccines at the time they were recommended.

This is important information for the parents who may think delaying or refusing vaccines is common practice.

Here are some ideas for ways that your practice can celebrate NIIW this year:

  • “Launch” NIIW by bringing in breakfast or lunch for your staff. Use this opportunity to discuss ways that your entire practice can promote NIIW to parents. Decorate your waiting room with balloons, streamers, an NIIW banner, and coloring sheets. Immunize Nevada has resources too, let us know what you need!
  • Promote NIIW on Facebook or Twitter. CDC has sample tweets and Facebook posts you can use during NIIW and throughout the year. You can also follow Immunize Nevada on social media, and retweet or share our posts.
  • Celebrate with colleagues at Immunize Nevada’s Silver Syringe Awards on April 20 in Reno, and April 27 in Las Vegas.

By making NIIW an event for your entire practice, you can raise awareness about the importance of immunization for protecting children in our community. Nevada’s immunization rates are the highest they’ve been in over a decade, and it’s because of immunization champions like you. Thank you for protecting the health of Nevada’s children and families!