Developing a "best practice" influenza vaccination program for health care workers--an evidence-based,...

Transmission of influenza among health care workers is a well-documented problem. Influenza vaccination is an effective intervention to reduce the influenza burden; however, vaccination rates remain low among health care workers. The challenge for occupational health nurses is how to increase health care workers' vaccination rates. This article describes the key components of a successful influenza program at a large integrated health care system. A multidisciplinary team developed and implemented an evidence-based, leadership-modeled program that led to improvement in health care workers' vaccination rates from 66% to 77% in year one and from 77% to 84% in year two.