Health Policy: Childhood Vaccinations (Essay Sample)

Health Policy: Childhood Vaccinations
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Health Policy: Childhood Vaccinations
Governments employ different mechanisms such as vaccinations and the provision of affordable care to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates arising from preventable illnesses. Childhood vaccination is one of the policies highly used in the United States to keep young people safe from health complications. Varied stakeholders, namely the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the caregivers, and government agencies are involved in creating annual recommendations for children vaccinations (Bowling, 2018). Although childhood vaccination has been successful in the control and prevention of diseases, many parents still remain resistant towards the immunization of their children thus necessitating a policy change. Nurses are in a unique position, as mediators between the policymakers and the parents, to influence health policy on childhood vaccination through advocacy and better communications.
Nurses can use advocacy as a force to ensure that the childhood vaccination policies set forth within the country are in line with the patient’s needs (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw & O’Grady, 2016). Clinicians have been patient advocates for a long time and they can use this aspect to present the desires of the parents to the committees designed to develop annual health policies in regards to the vaccination of minors. Moreover, the practitioners are being incorporated as full partners in redesigning the health care industry in the United States which makes it possible for the caregivers to influence health policies (Maso