Wednesday, October 23, 2013

How & Why a New York Nurse Celebrates World Polio Day

In light of World Polio Day, the founder of Nurses Who Vaccinate was invited to write a guest blog post on Shot of Prevention - Vaccinate Your Baby





In today's blog post, Melody Butler, a pediatric registered nurse from New York explains why she celebrates World Polio Day and decided to host "Nurses Night Out.





To read more click on the following link HERE

http://shotofprevention.com/2013/10/23/nurses-night-out-focuses-on-polio-prevention/

This post also was featured on Shot@Life's Blog Post- Nurses Night Out


For details on the "Nurses Night Out" event being held on Thursday, October 24th on Long Island, New York check out this event page link here.  



Monday, October 21, 2013

Nurse's Night Out

Calling all New York Nurses! 

Nurse's Night Out!

will be held this Thursday, October 24, 2013 at Maxwell's in Islip, Long Island, New York (501 Main St Islip, NY 11751-3520) from 6pm- 10pm. 

There is FREE admission to the event for all, and when healthcare workers provide a valid Health ID, they will receive complimentary food and drinks and tickets to the Nurse's Night Out silent auction.

The Silent Auction features exciting items donated by local businesses such as a VIP Wine Tasting at the Martha Clara Vineyards on the North Fork of Long Island and spa packages.

The evening's goal is to thank and support the many health care professionals (not just nurses!) on Long Island with a fun night out with their friends and family, while sharing information about the host of the event, Shot@Life

Below are links where the event has been shared and advertised. Check out the official Facebook Event Page and RSVP to be placed on the list and guaranteed admission!

-Newsday-
-Long Island.com-


Thursday, August 29, 2013

Nurses Who Vaccinate is a Finalist for Mosby's Superheroes of Nursing!

Exciting News!! Nurses Who Vaccinate is in the running to be the one of Mosby's Nursing Suite's Superheroes of Nursing! The creator, Melody Butler is one of the PROTECTOR finalists. 

But Nurses Who Vaccinate needs your help! Now until 12pm, Saturday, August 31st, the link below is open for voting from Facebook users and we would love for all of our followers and colleagues to vote for us! 



The top nurses from each of the five categories will be invited to attend the 2013 ANCC National Magnet Conference in October. 

Thank you for voting, and sharing this exciting opportunity with us, please use the following link to place your online vote!


Link->> https://www.facebook.com/MosbysSuite/app_563789436986364






Saturday, February 23, 2013

Protect Babies from Whooping Cough

Here's a fresh new infographic from the CDC explaining three steps that expectant parents can take to give their babies the best protection from whooping cough, including the recommendation that pregnant women get a Tdap shot during every pregnancy.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/infographics/protect-babies-from-whooping-cough.html

Like it? Tell a friend! Share with patients! It’s important! Pin it! Tweet it! Share it on Facebook!

Friday, February 22, 2013

A Closer Look At The Flu

The Flu season isn't over yet. In fact some areas are currently experiencing their influenza peak as you read this. And despite the extensive media coverage and the plethora of news articles shared on the internet, influenza can remain a deadly disease for those who didn't take the proper precautions to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Check out the graphic below for facts on the flu and share with it with your friends. You may save a life.



 Flu Infographic

Special thanks to OnlineEducation.net for providing this graphic
(
http://www.onlineeducation.net/2013/02/04/the-flu-and-you)

Sunday, February 10, 2013

From Penn Station to Pennsylvania Avenue



I am currently aboard the Amtrak train 157 to Washington D.C, and it’s a great time to ask and respond to a very important question. Why am I, a pediatric nurse from Long Island, heading to America’s Capital? The answer-  #GlobalVax. It’s the theme of this year’s Shot@Life’s Champion Summit, which I am honored to have been selected to attend with other dedicated and enthusiastic vaccine professionals. One hundred Champions have been given the unique opportunity to meet up in America’s capital to learn from leaders of top global health organizations, work together to cultivate ideas to promote immunization, and enjoy the company of other evidence-based child health activists. Although this trip required leaving my incredible husband and four amazing children for four days, the amount of progress my fellow champions and I will accomplish when we visit Capital Hill, the education we will receive from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the information that will be relayed to us by the UN Foundation and Every Child by Two/Vaccinate Your Baby will be an invaluable, worthy, and extraordinary experience.
Before I left, I explained to my oldest why I was traveling to Washington, and what I hope to accomplish. After listening to the planned agenda, seeing other Champions detailing their overseas advocacy, and hearing the heartbreaking stories about vaccine-preventable diseases, he turned to me and simply said, “I’ll miss you, but you have a lot of work to do to help those other kids.”

Yes, yes we do.

Check out #Vaximpact @ http://www.shotatlife.org/impact
Follow Melody on Twitter (@MelodyButler) & (@nurseswhovax) for updates on the Shot@Life Summit in Washington, D.C. and to send questions and comments.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Catching Measles Shouldn't be Portrayed as a Fairy Tale

An anti-science/ anti-vaccination book promoting Measles is getting slammed by media and reviewers. Rightfully so, when more than 300 deaths were reported today - thanks to the very disease lightly dismissed in the self-published book - when vaccine shipments failed to reach the city of Sindh in time. The president of Pakistan Paediatricians’ Association states that well over 70% of the children who died were not vaccinated. The inaccessibility to life-saving vaccines unfortunately reminds the public that  Measles is responsible for thousands of preventable deaths each year. No one can deny the horrible effect vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles can inflict on families and young children.

Case-in-point-  Measles encephalitis (a severe complication of Measles) caused the death of Roald Dahl’s eight year old daughter Olivia in 1962, the year before a measles vaccine became available. He then went on to became an public supporter of vaccination as a result of the tragic loss of his daughter. One of his most popular PSA is featured below - a letter written by the author himself, pleading with parents to get their children vaccinated. Though written more than 20 years ago, the truth of the matter is that there remain, even today,  parents and patients who fail to realize the importance of vaccines and how forgoing them can inflict suffering on their loved ones or worse- cost them the life of their children.

Measles: A dangerous illness, by Roald Dahl

 
Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything. “Are you feeling all right?” I asked her. “I feel all sleepy, ” she said. In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead. The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her. On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it. It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness. Believe me, it is. In my opinion parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk. In America, where measles immunisation is compulsory, measles like smallpox, has been virtually wiped out. Here in Britain, because so many parents refuse, either out of obstinacy or ignorance or fear, to allow their children to be immunised, we still have a hundred thousand cases of measles every year. Out of those, more than 10,000 will suffer side effects of one kind or another. At least 10,000 will develop ear or chest infections. About 20 will die. LET THAT SINK IN. Every year around 20 children will die in Britain from measles. So what about the risks that your children will run from being immunised? They are almost non-existent. Listen to this. In a district of around 300,000 people, there will be only one child every 250 years who will develop serious side effects from measles immunisation! That is about a million to one chance. I should think there would be more chance of your child choking to death on a chocolate bar than of becoming seriously ill from a measles immunisation. So what on earth are you worrying about? It really is almost a crime to allow your child to go unimmunised. The ideal time to have it done is at 13 months, but it is never too late. All school-children who have not yet had a measles immunisation should beg their parents to arrange for them to have one as soon as possible. Incidentally, I dedicated two of my books to Olivia, the first was James and the Giant Peach. That was when she was still alive. The second was The BFG, dedicated to her memory after she had died from measles. You will see her name at the beginning of each of these books. And I know how happy she would be if only she could know that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children.
 
See below for more information on Measles and the vaccines that are available to help protect children from this preventable disease.