Ekhaguere, Osayame: Health education delivery workflow change to reduce vaccine clinic wait time in Nigeria

Background/Significance/Rationale: Global rates for routine childhood vaccines have remained at 85% for over 20 years, with low- and middle-income countries carrying the greatest burden. Long clinic wait time due to delayed start time in delivering health education talk is an identified barrier to vaccine completion in Nigeria. We changed the health education delivery method and evaluated the effect on vaccine clinic time.

Methods: We implemented a looped audio-video health talk into the clinic session with time for questions before vaccine administration. Mean clinic time before and after the implementation was compared for all parents and those who arrived before 0900 AM. Survey instruments assessed parental perceptions of the change.

Results/Findings: The average total clinic time pre-implementation was 73 (50) min and 59 (45) min in the post-implementation phase (p = 0.0019). For parents who presented before 9 AM, the average total clinic time pre-implementation was 127 (45) min and 96 (26) min in the post-implementation phase (p = 0.0001). Of the 100 parents surveyed, 50 felt the time spent in the clinic was adequate, 26 too short, and 24 too long. 53 felt their experience was better, 39 the same, and 8 worse than their last visit. 98 women felt the quality of the health education talk with the video was better than the former method, and 99 felt there was adequate time to ask questions.

Conclusions/Discussion: A looped audio-visual health education talk significantly reduced vaccine wait time and improved the parents’ experience. The impact of shorter wait times and better experiences at vaccine clinics on vaccine completion rates needs to be evaluated.

Translational/Human Health Impact: The project has potential to improve vaccine completion rate which will reduce vaccine preventable deaths.

Ekhaguere: Health education delivery workflow change to reduce vaccine clinic wait time in Nigeria