Impacting the TDAP Acceptance Rate Among Postpartum Women

Pertussis, also known as Whooping Cough, is a contagious disease that affects children more than adults, especially children under the age of 12 months. In the United States in 2009, there were more than 16,000 cases of pertussis in infants less than 6 month of age (National Network for Immunizations and Information, 2011). At a local Midwestern community hospital, a revised Tdap policy that consisted of an education component and standardization of when the vaccine was administered was implemented to increase the acceptance rate of Tdap vaccines among postpartum mothers due to their significantly low Tdap acceptance rate. The purpose of this project was to determine if implementation of a Tdap postpartum policy that includes a patient education component, and standardization of when the vaccine is given affects the Tdap vaccine acceptance rate among postpartum women, using the John Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model to guide the study. A retrospective chart review was conducted three months prior to implementation of the Tdap practice change and the data were compared with the information collected three months post implementation of the project. There was a significant difference in tdap acceptance rate among postpartum mothers, a chi squared statistical analysis was performed on the pre and post group to determine overall acceptance rate of the vaccine. Documentation of patient education on the Tdap vaccine increased from 0 to 13.2% over the three month period. Revising the Tdap policy, standardization of the vaccine and educating the nurses and patients on the Tdap vaccine increased the overall Tdap acceptance among postpartum mothers.