School nurses' experiences of delivering the UK HPV vaccination programme in its first year

Shona Hilton,Kate Hunt,Helen Bedford,Mark Petticrew

doi:10.1186/1471-2334-11-226

Abstract

BackgroundIn the United Kingdom (UK) in September 2008, school nurses began delivering the HPV immunisation programme for girls aged 12 and 13 years old. This study offers insights from school nurses' perspectives and experiences of delivering this new vaccination programme.MethodsThirty in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with school nurses working across the UK between September 2008 and May 2009. This time period covers the first year of the HPV vaccination programme in schools. School nurses were recruited via GP practices, the internet and posters targeted at school nurse practitioners.ResultsAll the school nurses spoke of readying themselves for a deluge of phone calls from concerned parents, but found that in fact few parents telephoned to ask for more information or express their concerns about the HPV vaccine. Several school nurses mentioned a lack of planning by policy makers and stated that at its introduction they felt ill prepared. The impact on school nurses' workload was spoken about at length by all the school nurses. They believed that the programme had vastly increased their workload leading them to cut back on their core activities and the time they could dedicate to offering support to vulnerable pupils.ConclusionOverall the first year of the implementation of the HPV vaccination programme in the UK has exceeded school nurses' expectations and some of its success may be attributed to the school nurses' commitment to the programme. It is also the case that other factors, including positive newsprint media reporting that accompanied the introduction of the HPV vaccination programme may have played a role. Nevertheless, school nurses also believed that the programme had vastly increased their workload leading them to cut back on their core activities and as such they could no longer dedicate time to offer support to vulnerable pupils. This unintentional aspect of the programme may be worthy of further exploration.

Highlights

In the United Kingdom (UK) in September 2008, school nurses began delivering the Human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme for girls aged 12 and 13 years old
The new HPV vaccine was introduced into the United Kingdom (UK) in September 2008, to protect girls against two high risk strains of HPV that cause around 70% of cases of cervical cancer [4]
Sampling and recruitment Thirty in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with school nurses between September 2008 and May 2009 to cover the first year of the HPV vaccination programme in schools in the UK

Summary

Introduction

In the United Kingdom (UK) in September 2008, school nurses began delivering the HPV immunisation programme for girls aged 12 and 13 years old. It is estimated that 20% of sexually active girls will contract the virus by the age of 18 years [1] and up to 80% of women will have had an infection by the time they reach 50 years of age [2]. The new HPV vaccine was introduced into the United Kingdom (UK) in September 2008, to protect girls against two high risk strains of HPV that cause around 70% of cases of cervical cancer [4]. For the HPV vaccination programme to be most effective it is recommended that young people are given the vaccine before they become sexually active [5]. To maximise its uptake and effectiveness the three-dose schedule is delivered in schools by school nurses over six months as part of the publicly funded

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion