TY - JOUR
T1 - Tactics employed by healthcare providers in Denmark to determine the vaccination needs of asylum-seeking children
T2 - A qualitative study
AU - S. Nakken, Cathrine
AU - Nørredam, Marie Louise
AU - Skovdal, Morten
PY - 2018/11/14
Y1 - 2018/11/14
N2 - Background: Many asylum-seekers to Denmark come from war-torn countries where conflict and insufficient health care infrastructures disrupt vaccine programmes and result in very few children and their families presenting documentation of vaccinations on their arrival in asylum-centers. There is a need to explore how healthcare providers, in the absence of vaccine documentation, determine the vaccination needs of newly arrived refugee children. Methods: To explore the tactics employed by healthcare professionals who screen and vaccinate asylum-seeking children in Denmark, we conducted semi-structured interviews between December 2015 and January 2016 with six healthcare professionals, including three doctors and three public health nurses. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and subjected to a thematic network analysis. Results: The analysis revealed that healthcare providers adopt a number of tactics to ascertain children's immunization needs. They ask into the children's vaccination history through the use of qualified interpreters; consult WHO lists of immunization programmes worldwide; draw on tacit knowledge about country vaccination programmes; consider the background of parents; err on the side of caution and revaccinate. Conclusions: This is one of the first studies to demonstrate the tactics employed by healthcare providers to ascertain the immunization needs of asylum-seeking children in a western receiving country. The findings suggest a need for clear guidance at a national level on how to determine the vaccination needs of asylum-seeking children, and an international effort to secure reliable immunization documentation for migrant populations, for example through virtual immunization records.
AB - Background: Many asylum-seekers to Denmark come from war-torn countries where conflict and insufficient health care infrastructures disrupt vaccine programmes and result in very few children and their families presenting documentation of vaccinations on their arrival in asylum-centers. There is a need to explore how healthcare providers, in the absence of vaccine documentation, determine the vaccination needs of newly arrived refugee children. Methods: To explore the tactics employed by healthcare professionals who screen and vaccinate asylum-seeking children in Denmark, we conducted semi-structured interviews between December 2015 and January 2016 with six healthcare professionals, including three doctors and three public health nurses. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and subjected to a thematic network analysis. Results: The analysis revealed that healthcare providers adopt a number of tactics to ascertain children's immunization needs. They ask into the children's vaccination history through the use of qualified interpreters; consult WHO lists of immunization programmes worldwide; draw on tacit knowledge about country vaccination programmes; consider the background of parents; err on the side of caution and revaccinate. Conclusions: This is one of the first studies to demonstrate the tactics employed by healthcare providers to ascertain the immunization needs of asylum-seeking children in a western receiving country. The findings suggest a need for clear guidance at a national level on how to determine the vaccination needs of asylum-seeking children, and an international effort to secure reliable immunization documentation for migrant populations, for example through virtual immunization records.
U2 - 10.1186/s12913-018-3661-1
DO - 10.1186/s12913-018-3661-1
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 30428869
SN - 1472-6963
VL - 18
JO - BMC Health Services Research
JF - BMC Health Services Research
M1 - 859
ER -
