Poder Sano is a new initiative by Farmworker Justice to help mobilize rural Latino communities around the prevention of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis. Through this project, Farmworker Justice will provide free capacity-building assistance and community mobilization tools to strengthen community-based organizations' HIV prevention programs, improve monitoring and evaluation practices, and create partnerships for program support.

Poder Sano aims to mobilize rural Latino communities around the prevention of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and other health concerns relevant to migrant farmworkers.

Over the last three years, we have touched on many topics that we hoped would help you as you work to improve immunization rates in your clinic. For the final edition, we return to the important issue of patient-carried immunization records.

First, we offer an article that provides a convincing yes to the title question: “Are Patient-Held Vaccination Records Associated with Improved Vaccination Coverage Rates?” The authors of the article, James T. McElligott and Paul M. Darden.

As a compliment to the article, and by way of a final thank-you for your participation, MCN, along with CHEC (Community Health Education Concepts), has developed patient-friendly, low literacy, bi-lingual immunization cards for you to use with your clients.  The cards are 5x7, and can be printed from your clinic computers.  There are two versions, a Lifetime Card for adults, and a Child and Teen Card, both in Spanish/English.  We designed the card to be as simple as possible, and to include only the most important information.  If the information is meaningful and understandable to the clients, they are more likely to understand the importance of keeping their shots up to date.

An article that provides a convincing yes to the title question: “Are Patient-Held Vaccination Records Associated with Improved Vaccination Coverage Rates?” The authors of the article, James T. McElligott and Paul M. Darden, conclude that the “Use of patient-held vaccination records is an easily implemented strategy that is associated with increased immunization rates. A greater effect was seen in groups at risk for underimmunization. Methods to incorporate and to ensure effective use of these records should be implemented” The article was published in Pediatrics in February of 2010. The full citation is as follows: Pediatrics 2010;125;e467-e472; originally published online Feb 15, 2010; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2009-0835. The online version of this article, along with updated information and services also available.

This flyer discusses diabetes and exercise. Available in Spanish and English.

A Shot of Quality Improvement!

Welcome to Immu-News, the Immunization Initiatives listserv, a monthly resource for the community of participants in this project.

All health care delivery organizations are required to have quality assurance and quality improvement programs, but it is often difficult to make these efforts really meaningful in the everyday practice of serving patients. This month’s Immu-News suggests a number of immunization quality measurements that you can adapt to your local setting. We are finding from our site visits that many of you really struggle with understanding who is getting immunized, who is missed, and what the root causes are for the gap between your goal of full immunization and the present reality at your center. Additionally, immunization data gathering is often very time consuming, often duplicated several times over for various outside agencies, and often not in step with the ways changes are made in other parts of your organization. Here are a few ideas from us, and we welcome responses back from you that will continually improve immunization practices.

Addressing the Big Four: On-Time Immunizations, Knowing Your Baseline, Making Improvement, and Accurate Records

Our four quality topics will cover:

• Immunization reminder systems
• Baseline immunization rate audits
• Measuring success
• Patient self-management in record retrieval

Resources

• PDSA Worksheet for Testing Change
• Immunization Audit Summary
• Manual Immunization Audit

Este recurso del CDC ofrece una visión general de la tos ferina , también conocida como Whooping Cough. Los temas incluyen síntomas , propagación, la tos ferina en los EE.UU. y las medidas de prevención.

This resources provides an overview of Pertussis, also known as the Whooping Cough. Topics include symptoms, how its spread, Pertussis in the US and prevention measures.

The Fresno County Website Community Health page offers information and resources on Pertussis also known as the Whooping Cough. Content includes information for parents, vaccination schedules and respitory hygiene, information for health care providers, and information for schools.

OSHA facts sheet and guidance for commercial swine farmers and pork producers.  Bilingual "quick card" to assist with worker protection. 

It Takes the Whole Team: Staff Roles in ImmunizationWelcome to Immu-News, the Immunization Initiatives listserv, a monthly resource for the community of participants in this project.Our topic for the month is It Takes the Whole Team:  Staff Roles in Immunization.  As you know, we’ve been calling each of the Project clinics over the last months and wanted to share with you some interesting ideas about who plays what part in immunization at our clinics.Of course, we all think immediately about the providers and nurses, the people most likely to administer the vaccines.  But who orders the vaccines, who checks the supplies, who keeps the logs, who books the appointments, who enters the data, who tracks it, and who encourages the clients to come in to the clinic to get the shot?It could be at some clinics that one or two people do most or all of these jobs, while at other clinics, they may be divided up among three or four or more people.  What works at your clinic and why?  Does the hand that gives the shot know what the other hands are doing?  How is recording and tracking immunization data a team effort? How can the receptionist, the billing clerk, and the outreach worker all be a crucial part of the picture?Read on for information about the following:

1. Experience: A checklist of all the different tasks necessary to arrive at your clinic’s immunization goals, gathered from our recent phone calls to you.
2. Research: the collaborative approach--how successful are systems that incorporate the receptionist or the outreach worker into the immunization goals of the clinic?

Our topic for the month is H1N1 vaccinations.  Dealing with both seasonal flu vaccinations and the constant swirl of information, availability, and updates around the H1N1 vaccine has made this a challenging season flu season for providers.  We offer direct links to several CDC web pages and one patient flyer from the CDC.

A bilingual training kit for community health workers to educate families about in home pesticide safety.  Includes a step-by-step facilitator guide with handouts and a power point slide slow.  Developed by the Center for Environmental Resource Management at UTEP for US-Mexico border residents.

Un paquete bilingue para ayudar a trabajadores comunitarios de la salud a educar familias sobre la forma segura de usar pesticidas en el hogar.  Hay instrucciones paso a paso, los materiales para distribuir y la presentación para mostrarse estan disponibles en Español. Estas pláticas se enfocan a los residentes de la frontera EU-México y fue realizado por el Centro para la Administración de Recursos Ambientales de la Universidad de Texas en El Paso.

There has never been a better time to recruit and retain clinicians through the National Health Service Corps(NHSC). Clinicians working in NHSC‐approved sites with HPSA scores as low as zero have greater opportunities and access to funding than ever before in the history of the program.

A complete list of questions and answers on HPV Vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This table for healthcare providers and planners provides information related to spacing between the two doses of 2009 H1N1 vaccine for children 6 months through 9 years of age and for administration of 2009 H1N1 vaccine with seasonal influenza and other vaccines.