DNP student expands survey from CDC

If you want to know about vaccinations, don’t just ask physicians, ask advanced practice nurses too. That was the message Cara Curley, CRNP recently sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Curley, a student in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program and a nurse practitioner in a large urban Philadelphia OB/GYN practice, received a forwarded email from a colleague about a survey "ACOG and CDC Tdap Immunization Survey for OB-GYNs."  Tdap is a vaccine offering protection against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough). She was unable to take the survey since she is not a physician.

Curley emailed the CDC and pointed out that in her practice, which includes numerous satellite offices, NPs are the providers seeing the patients for potentially all of their care and thus completing the education and orders for the new vaccine recommendations. She suggested that NPs and certified nurse midwives also be included in the survey to provide more accurate data in the survey. She was notified by the CDC that they have subsequently released a survey “to obtain the opinions and experiences of nurse practitioners, midwives, and nurses.”

Curley is completing her scholarly DNP project on new tdap recommendations.