School nurse’s experiences of offering HPV vaccination to young girls in a Swedish vaccination program

• Background: In the Swedish school health system, girls 10-12 years old are vaccinated for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) with a vaccination coverage of 80%, which is less than other vaccinations in the national child vaccination program according to The Public Health Agency of Sweden. The aim of this study was to describe school nurse’s experience of offering HPV vaccination to girls, age 10-12 years old.Methods: Focus group interviews (n=4) with school nurses (n=17) working in rural and urban areas. The analysis was based on Elo & Kyngäs content analysis.Results: The school nurses had different strategies, abilities and presumptions when offering HPV vaccination. There were various ways to inform parents and girls  about HPV and HPV vaccination, but commonly they use information from the school health systems guidelines. It was found that school nurses experienced that there was a lack of knowledge about HPV among both school nurses, parents, girls. One of the problems that the school nurses had was to get the written consent from the parent. Without the written consent, the vaccination will not be performed.Conclusions: The school nurse's vaccination assignment is complex. There are several factors that are important before the vaccination itself can be carried out.  How it is performed differs between the school nurses depending on strategy, ability and presumption. The results indicate that an increased knowledge and support in the daily work with HPV vaccination is needed in order to increase the HPV vaccination coverage in the long term. 

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

HPV vaccination

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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