New partnership in Philadelphia – How a coalition of American museums can improve public health

As Covid-19 vaccines are approved for children under the age of twelve in late 2021, vaccination rates have lagged behind expectations, putting children and their families at risk. This public health challenge calls for new strategies to improve vaccine education and access. Recognizing the critical role of school nurses as trusted health professionals in this population, our organizations—The Franklin Institute and the National Nurse Led Care Coalition (NNCC), with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – partnered with them to launch the School Immunization Education Program (SVAP) to build vaccine confidence in unvaccinated communities.

We felt that this collaboration of complementary skill sets between public health, education and patient care partners was an opportunity to address the different challenges we all face individually. At NNCC, we’ve built a strong support and advocacy network for nurse-led care, but we’re looking to explore new approaches to public health communication that can best reach people where they are. At the Franklin Institute, we developed educational tools to share information about COVID-19, but they were not always aligned with the urgent needs of community health organizations focused on crisis response services. And we’ve learned that school nurses, on the front lines of Omicron’s diversity, need resources relevant to the needs of their communities to sustain their immunization education and communication efforts.

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SVEP was born from our vision that by working together, we can increase the capacity of community-based leaders to implement best practices in non-formal science education to improve long-term health in their communities. At The Franklin Institute, we value our partnerships across Philadelphia, allowing us to be a part of the community in a way that our building could not do on its own. We know from studies on the vaccine connection The messenger is the case.. By partnering with the NNCCC to encourage school nurses to become ambassadors, we hoped to have an impact that we could not have done on our own.

For Covid-19, SVAP’s goal was to strengthen nurses’ knowledge by teaching elementary school students the science of how the SARS-CoV-2 virus makes them sick and how vaccines can prevent it. In the year In the spring of 2022, we piloted the program by recruiting a team of ten nurses from underserved communities. This team led the development of valuable, useful and effective resources, delivered programs in schools and evaluated their impact. Thanks to their cooperation and feedback, we can share lessons that we hope will be useful to other museums, laying the foundation for future expansion.

In earlier conversations with our team, we gained a deeper appreciation for the different roles and responsibilities that nurses take on in their school community. We knew we needed to develop flexible tools to suit different environments and communities, including those with limited English proficiency. Given the urgency of building vaccine confidence and the realities of the school calendar, we know that time is critical. Fortunately, thanks to the wonderful spirit of cooperation in the museum field and Communities for prevention initiatives and the National Non-Formal STEM Education (NISE) Network, we didn’t have to start from scratch. Drawing on the existing work of the Franklin Institute as well as shared projects Pensacola MESS HALL and the WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and TechnologyWe assembled five types of tools, including print materials in seven languages: 1) practical activities, 2) letters to families, 3) videos and scripts, 4) one-page flyers, and 5) graphic communication assets.

We also asked the nurses what skills and information would help them feel comfortable and confident in delivering toolkit programming. High priorities are interactive learning facilitation techniques as well as discussion strategies to address misinformation. Accordingly, our training program not only reviewed all of the toolkit materials, but also included time for nurses to learn. Evidence-based vaccine communication methods and the Franklin Institute “Core four” optimization strategies. As we watched the nurses practice with each other, it was clear that giving them the opportunity to learn from their own experiences was valuable and fun!

The nurses provided various programs with equipment and training. We love hearing about the creativity and diversity of formats and how you adapt the content to the needs of different audiences. “The kit allows you to engage the child and the parent,” said one nurse. Some examples of group programming include:

• Leading programs in the classroom
• Display field day materials at the nurse’s station at the end of the year
• Encourage hands-on searches in the nurse’s office during routine health check-ups
• Send home flyers or hold meetings before school vaccination clinics
• Recording their own videos to share with families

Reflecting on their experiences, the nurses valued the novelty of using toys to explain science, the visual and tactile elements of communication, and the connection between materials and science concepts. One nurse said, “Students hear the words ‘vaccine’ and ‘virus,’ but they don’t have anything to visualize. later How vaccines work Education, students have had an ‘aha’ moment with the covid virus and vaccines and have really commented, ‘I just got it’.” Even outside of the formal program, eye-catching materials and interactions sparked “mini-lessons” and organic conversations. Students and adults, when nurses show them in their health rooms or other places.

Most importantly, the nurses felt they helped build community immunization confidence at a critical time. While the public’s workload of lockdowns and daily contact tracing eased, the number of Covid cases in May and June brought the issue back into the spotlight. The toolkit provided an opportunity to renew the conversation based on experiential STEM education. “When children are engaged, they go home and report what they’ve learned and talk about vaccinations,” said one nurse. Two others who held immunization clinics in their schools during implementation felt that the lines of communication opened up by their programs influenced families’ decisions to vaccinate their children at the clinic. A nurse received questions from non-vaccinated workers who met her presentation to her students and later decided to vaccinate themselves.

The importance of local community ties has been demonstrated at every stage of the project. At NNCC, our initial idea to collaborate with the Franklin Institute was sparked by our previous involvement with urban climate change education. Once we learned that the Franklin Institute was involved with Communities for Immunity, a new partnership seemed like a natural fit. The SVEP pilot group is drawn from our local community. Although the opportunity to participate was extended to nurses in NNCC’s statewide networks through Pennsylvania, the majority of applicants were from the Philadelphia area—perhaps reflecting the reach of the Franklin Institute’s local audience. Familiarity with the museum helped the educational programs resonate with students. “Many of them went to the museum, and they were excited to hear that we were doing activities from the Franklin Institute,” said a nurse.

We look forward to expanding the project to a larger cohort of nurses next year with continued support from the CDC. Now that vaccines are approved for children under five years of age, we are working on screening and toolkits to expand their use to early childhood audiences. Looking to the future, our pilot results encourage us to think about how we can strengthen relationships between nurses, schools, museums, and public health organizations. Ours Previous work Informal educational programs have proven to be effective tools for building awareness and fostering dialogue about the complex relationships between the human body, physical environment, and social structures that shape health outcomes. The SVEP nurse shared, “One of the strongest tools a school nurse has is speaking and teaching opportunities. By empowering school nurses and other leaders to reach children and families through innovative health education, we can create a foundation for making informed lifelong decisions that advance community well-being.

It’s an initiative for communities to be immune. Association of Science and Technology Centers, Institute of Museum and Library Services, American Association of MuseumsAnd National Library of Medicine Networkwith support Centers for Disease Control and PreventionAnd in collaboration with American Library Associationof Association of African American Museumsof Association of Children’s Museumsof Rural and Small Library Associationof Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and MuseumsAnd City Library Council.