Infection Control and Vaccine Hesitancy in the Emergency Department

The emergency department is a crucial point of access to the health care system for patients with the initial signs and symptoms of infectious disease, as well as for patients in need of emergent prophylaxis after occupational or crime-related blood and body fluid exposures. Emergency nurses frequently care for patients with vaccine-preventable infections across the lifespan. Examples of these vaccine-preventable diseases range from reactivation of varicella zoster (shingles) or Streptococcus pneumonia in the older adult, hepatitis B from an occupational exposure in a working-age adult, meningitis in the university student, to measles or chickenpox in young children.
Source: Journal of Emergency Nursing: JEN - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: Editorial Source Type: research