Safe Vaccine Administration

This book equips nurses and midwives with a role in providing vaccination services in the UK with the information they need to practice safely and effectively. This includes ensuring they are equipped to answer questions as they arise. Starting with the importance of vaccination for public health, the book takes a vaccination through the life course approach from pregnancy, babies and childhood, teenagers, adults to older people discussing some of the key challenges and issues with the different vaccine programmes. The book provides readers with the best practice guidance to offer a safe effective and quality service. To maximise the uptake of vaccination across the population, it offers guidance on how to ensure vaccination is offered to and accessible to all those who are eligible. Information is offered on how to address parents’ and patients’ questions and concerns effectively, to ensure they are provided with the evidence-based information they need to make an informed decision about vaccination and be able to give informed consent. This book also provides technical information on vaccine preparation, injection techniques and how to minimise the pain and distress of vaccination; it also provides clinical management support for patient observation after vaccination. Each chapter is written by nurses and midwives expert in immunisation and vaccine administration, with contributions from physicians, legal and pharmacy professionals where relevant.