Using the Health Belief Model to develop educational strategies to improve pertussis vaccination rates among preschool staff.

The number of pertussis or "whooping cough" cases has steadily increased in the United States in the last 20 years. Many of the cases are adults who have not kept up with current vaccination recommendations. Adults are unknowingly exposing susceptible infants and unvaccinated children to this potentially deadly disease. Pertussis can spread rapidly, especially in household, daycare, and school settings. This pilot study examines how school nurses can be instrumental in improving staff immunization rates for pertussis by using the Health Belief Model as a framework for educational strategies.

A review of measles.

Measles, once a common childhood illness that many older school nurses could recognize without difficulty, needs review again after reemerging from Europe and other continents. A highly contagious disease, which has been referenced since the seventh century, the virus can cause serious illness and death, despite the fact that it is vaccine preventable. School nurses are wise to review the pathogenesis, occurrences, incubation, and communicability as well as methods to diagnose and treat measles in order to prevent an outbreak.