Dr. Page invited to speak in Jerusalem

Congratulations to Dr. Aroha Page, from Nipissing School of Nursing, who has been invited to present her paper, Vigilance-Harmonizing for Health Protective Practice - Paradoxes for Pandemic Flu among Nipissing University students, at the International Nursing Conference “Nursing: Caring to Know, Knowing to Care” held June 4 – 7, 2012 in Jerusalem.

Here is a short summary of Page’s research study findings:

The study’s student participants provided rich data that generated a substantive Grounded Theory to explain, with a deeper understanding for the variance and mechanisms involved in their decision making as to whether to undergo vaccination pre-during a pandemic (panflu).

Findings, thus far in analysis, reveal  that despite intensive public health education, doubts existed for some students about the efficacy, viability and validity of panflu vaccines that were problematic and deterred them from being vaccinated pre-or during a panflu (34 per cent) such as the recent pH1N1(SwineFlu).

With a potential pandemic on the horizon, for example the H5N1 (Avian Flu), more effective health messages need to be designed that are tailored to this population’s respective needs, within their idiom and presented and disseminated in their social media networks with experts. The theory generated reflected the reasoning perspectives and legitimate realities of their health belief systems that were involved in actions to participate or not participate in vaccination programs for a panflu. Information harvested from the 64 per cent of student “adopters” of the vaccine and 34 per cent “non-adpoters” will be vital for public health educators’ future planning. Implications are also salient for epidemiologists since the concept of “Herd Immunity” for optimal vaccine coverage is set at-much higher than this study’s population.