First Responder Safety: Vaccine Program
Abstract
The first responder community is there to protect us. However, their occupational health requirements, particularly their vaccine requirements, are sometimes lacking, particularly for specialty team members who can deploy to hazardous incidents.
We’ve known that vaccinating responders as they deploy to be ineffective as they won’t be fully protected. The approach can also inadvertently damage our relationship. They can feel cornered into taking vaccines, they won’t have the protections they may assume, and they can leave for deployment while feeling poorly. This has contributed to a portion of this group experiencing negative feelings about vaccines. This experience can also affect how they feel about Public Health as an agency.
We began to address these issues years after the Hurricane Katrina response. Benefits of developing and maintaining a vaccine program began to be outlined and occupational health policies bolstered within public safety agencies. These efforts increased the health protection of the responders and their families. Operational readiness is maintained due to reduction in callouts with post-deployment testing decreased. Local public health, along with emergency agencies, provide that safety while improving multi-agency relationships with these simple practices. Coordination between Responder Agencies, Emergency Preparedness, Immunizations, and County Health Departments increases effectiveness.
Through “conversations and collaborations for change,” we developed this vaccine program to serve as a base occupational health plan/policy for any agency to use. Our Learning Objective is that participants design and institute their own responder vaccine program after learning of the program and receiving our toolkit.
Our presentation will increase an audience member’s performance by strengthening occupational health and safety and contributing to sound program planning while addressing one of the “10 Essential Public Health Services” to “Strengthen, support, and mobilize communities and partnerships to improve health.” Promoting policies that protect our partners is a noble start to these endeavors.
Keywords
Immunizations, operational readiness, responder safety, partnerships, occupational health
First Responder Safety: Vaccine Program
The first responder community is there to protect us. However, their occupational health requirements, particularly their vaccine requirements, are sometimes lacking, particularly for specialty team members who can deploy to hazardous incidents.
We’ve known that vaccinating responders as they deploy to be ineffective as they won’t be fully protected. The approach can also inadvertently damage our relationship. They can feel cornered into taking vaccines, they won’t have the protections they may assume, and they can leave for deployment while feeling poorly. This has contributed to a portion of this group experiencing negative feelings about vaccines. This experience can also affect how they feel about Public Health as an agency.
We began to address these issues years after the Hurricane Katrina response. Benefits of developing and maintaining a vaccine program began to be outlined and occupational health policies bolstered within public safety agencies. These efforts increased the health protection of the responders and their families. Operational readiness is maintained due to reduction in callouts with post-deployment testing decreased. Local public health, along with emergency agencies, provide that safety while improving multi-agency relationships with these simple practices. Coordination between Responder Agencies, Emergency Preparedness, Immunizations, and County Health Departments increases effectiveness.
Through “conversations and collaborations for change,” we developed this vaccine program to serve as a base occupational health plan/policy for any agency to use. Our Learning Objective is that participants design and institute their own responder vaccine program after learning of the program and receiving our toolkit.
Our presentation will increase an audience member’s performance by strengthening occupational health and safety and contributing to sound program planning while addressing one of the “10 Essential Public Health Services” to “Strengthen, support, and mobilize communities and partnerships to improve health.” Promoting policies that protect our partners is a noble start to these endeavors.
