Immunisation, nurses and midwives in the Pacific

We're partnering to strengthen immunisation education for midwives and nurses across the Pacific.

Across the Pacific region, babies and children sometimes miss out on vaccines that protect them from preventable illnesses like whooping cough.

We’re working on strengthening curriculum immunisation modules so that more midwives and nurses can safely vaccinate babies and protect them from serious diseases.

Why midwives and nurses matter for immunisation

Nurses and midwives play an important role in maternal and child health. Having a midwife through pregnancy to infancy can mean having a consistent, trusted person to provide care.

By strengthening the knowledge, clinical skills and communication capabilities of future nurses and midwives, we’re aiming to:

improve the quality of immunisation services

build community confidence in vaccines

contribute to increased vaccination coverage

improve maternal and child health outcomes across Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

What we're doing

Building on our work with midwifery training, we’re working with educators, governments and regional partners to co-design 5 practical immunisation modules.

These modules will be embedded into pre-service midwifery and nursing curricula in Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.

The modules cover:

vaccinology (the science of developing and using vaccines)

vaccine administration

cold chain management to store vaccines at the right temperature

vaccine safety

service delivery (how to give people their shots)

effective vaccine communication.

We’re helping train educators to deliver these new modules, and supporting them to embed these within existing curricula.

Partners

Funding partners

Supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the Regional Immunisation Strengthening and Engagement 2 (RISE-2) program.