National Health Outreach and Engagement Conference 2024

Pollich, C, Sanson, D, Varner, J, Weinreb-Welch, L, Bayly, B.
Early care and education (ECE) programs serve an important role in public health promotion
and ensuring the children they care for receive recommended child vaccinations as they are
often viewed as resource brokers and key communicators of information regarding young
children’s healthy development. As such, it is critical that ECE professionals receive accurate
and up-to-date information regarding child vaccinations, as well as strategies to alleviate
families’ concerns around child vaccinations and resources to connect families with health
professionals. A large public-university Extension system was utilized to train ECE
professionals to help build child vaccine confidence in the families. The one-hour training was
delivered in-person and online and focused on three topic areas: 1) common reasons for
families’ vaccine hesitancy; 2) communication strategies for navigating conversations with
families about child vaccinations; and 3) trust-worthy, family-friendly sources of information
about child vaccinations. In addition, all participants received numerous handouts to share with
families in their ECE programs that focused on the importance of following recommended child
vaccination schedules.

Participants were asked to complete pre and post evaluation questions designed to capture
knowledge about childhood vaccines (e.g., “Childhood vaccines are important for the health of
other people in the community”), comfort in supporting families with the vaccine process (e.g.,
“I would be comfortable connecting families with questions and concerns around childhood
vaccines with our local health department”), and familiarity with current childhood vaccination
guidelines (e.g., “I am familiar with the CDC’s recommendations on childhood vaccinations”).
Participants were also asked about ECE programs’ role in supporting childhood vaccinations
and their feelings of self-efficacy in assisting families in feeling confident with the child
vaccination process.

Results (N =55) indicated improvement from pre to post on knowledge about child vaccinations
(pre M = 5.73; post M = 6.42; p < .05), comfort supporting families (pre M = 5.41; post M =
6.41; p < .001), and familiarity with child vaccination guidelines (pre M = 5.52; post M =
6.37; p < .01). Training participants were more likely to see ECE programs as playing a role
in supporting the child vaccination process (pre M = 5.87; post M = 6.48; p < .05) and felt
more efficacious in assisting families in feeling confident in the child vaccination process (pre
M = 2.88; post M = 3.35; p < .01). Finally, participants indicated that they had a great deal of
trust in the facilitator and the information provided (M = 6.76 on 7-point scale), felt the topic
was relevant and important (M = 6.55 on 7-point scale), and reported high levels of engagement
(M = 6.62 on 7-point scale).

Given that ECE programs serve as a key contact point for families all over the U.S., they play
an important role in public health promotion through the dissemination of accurate and up-to-
date health-related information to families of young children. Our results indicate that outreach
efforts can serve as an effective tool for supporting the child vaccination process through
training ECE professionals to effectively communicate accurate information to families.