Child and Adolescent Health

Running head: CHILD AND ADOLESCENT HEALTH
Child and Adolescent Health
Student’s Name and Number
Deakin University
Word Count:

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT HEALTH
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Child and Adolescent Health
Abstract
The introduction part of the document highlights the needs of the influenza vaccination
and the fears of the parents who refuse to provide their infant ones the influenza vaccination. In
the next section, risks and benefits of influenza virus are discussed. The next part of this
document describes the refusal risks of the vaccination. The next two parts provide
recommendation for the influenza vaccination and the communication strategies which nurses
need to adopt for the family centered communication. The last part of this document concludes
the whole topic.
Introduction
Vaccination for the prevention of different diseases is an effective tool which is used in
the healthcare department for the different age groups. Influenza Virus is a dangerous kind of
virus and certain influenza vaccinations are in use at a large scale to prevent people from the bad
effects of this disease. But most of the people are reluctant and hesitant and most of the time they
refuse to get influenza vaccine due to certain kind of fears. The strategies are used at personal,
community, national and international level to help people know about the importance of this
vaccine by organizing them (Hussain, 2019). “Influenza Virus damages the general health of
people of all ages and kids are more prone to this (Rhoda, 2018). So, nurses must educate the
parents, especially mothers of the infants about the immunization and importance of influenza
vaccine and this could be done effectively by using effective communication strategies.”
Risks and Benefits of Influenza Vaccination
While Ashley thinks that she got flu because she had an influenza vaccination is just a false
notion because the body develops immunity against flu after one to two weeks of the

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vaccination. So, she might have caught flu by chance. The influenza vaccination in pregnant
women is important and the risks of having these vaccinations include bacterial and viral
infections which give rise to other diseases as well and the risks of vaccine are far less than the
advantages because this vaccination prevents both the mother and the kid from the seasonal viral
infections and after the age of 6 months, direct vaccination should also be given to the kid
(Singh, et al., 2019). The risks may include mortality, morbidity and hospitalization of the
infants due to influenza virus. They may face severe attacks of other diseases in the presence of
this virus (Troeger, et al, 2019). The mothers who think that they can have a pregnancy
complication if they have any influenza vaccination, they are wrong. They must learn that they
are prone to seasonal flu and hence need protection from this virus for the safety of their health
and their kid as well and it is the responsibility of the healthcare professionals to give them
proper education on this topic (Rhoda, 2018). Research suggests that 175 deaths have been
reported during a flu season in 2017-18 and all those kids had viral attacks from flu. To avoid
this rate of deaths, parents, healthcare professionals and others members in the community must
understand their role to save the important lives of these kids who are vulnerable to high flu risk
due to lack of anti-virus vaccination (Lisa & Flor, 2018). So, the risks of not having a vaccine are
higher than developing fears about the vaccine.
Refusal Risks associated with Influenza Vaccination
The dependence for the acceptance and refusal of vaccination in the parents of the kids is
on the type of the vaccine. If they trust the vaccine, they go for it and if they do not trust a type
of vaccine, they want to save their kid from having that (Melissa B. Gilkey, 2016). A lot of
parents refuse to have a vaccination for their kids because of a few reasons. These reasons may
include religious behaviors, personal beliefs, fears, social learning and a wish to get authentic