Background: Vaccinating is globally one of the most cost-effective preventive health care innovations. It requires special education, and vaccination professionals (public health nurses, health visitors, public health specialists, nurses, midwives, etc) should be competent and qualified professionals to provide high quality care, and it should be safe and cost-effective. Aims and objectives: The EDUVAC project objectives include: fostering each partner’ institutions’ internationalisation strategy by the mobility of staff and students; enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning programme in vaccination; developing and implementing a web-based course (3 ECTS) and an Intensive Course (2 ECTS) for vaccination for international use; and finally strengthening the knowledge, skills and attitudes of students in the four EU strategic partner universities in vaccinating the clients. Partners and participants: The partners of this project are 5 HEIs which share the same goals and needs in vaccination education among their students. The partners from each HEIs are highly educated with many years experience in educating students and they have excellent working experience in the field of health care and immunization, in particular. There are also associated partners involved in the project. The participants of the project are students who are studying public health, public health nursing, nursing, midwifery and community health in the 5 HEIs partners. Activities and methodology: The EDUVAC project activities include the development and implementation of a web-based course and an Intensive Course. These will be tested and revised in order to be improved. The final material will be produced and it will be available on Open Access for anyone interested after the project cycle. The development of the courses includes the production of a syllabus and the production of the content and material for the courses. The web-based course will take place 3times and the Intensive Course will take place 2 times. Furthermore, the evaluation of the project and the analysis as well as activities for the dissemination of the results including a Multiplier Event will take place. Throughout the 36 months, meetings will take place in order to support and work on the different phases of the project. Results and dissemination: The results and material of the project will be disseminated so that interested parts can learn about the project and access the material produced for their use. The potential longer term benefit of the EDUVAC project is to promote collaboration on vaccination education among different countries. Moreover, another potential longer term benefit is to promote the health of the population in the countries of the partner institutions by increasing the vaccination coverage and ultimately promote vaccinations worldwide.
Context/background of the project: Vaccinations are globally one of the most cost-effective public health interventions. The recent situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected every aspect of life, has stressed even more the need of vaccinations. Vaccinating requires special education and vaccination professionals should be competent and qualified professionals to provide high quality and safe care, which is cost-effective. EDUVAC objectives: fostering internationalization of each partner/Higher Education Institution (HEI) by the mobility of staff and students; enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning program in vaccination; developing and implementing a web-based course (3 ECTS) and an Intensive Course (2 ECTS) for vaccination for international use; and finally, strengthening the knowledge, skills and attitudes of students in the four EU strategic partner Universities in vaccinating the clients with the ultimate goal to increase vaccination coverage. Number and type/profile of participants: The partners of EDUVAC project were 5 HEIs which share the same goals and needs in vaccination education among their students. The partners involved from each HEI are highly educated with many years of experience in educating students and they have excellent working experience in the field of health care and immunization, in particular. In EDUVAC project participated 19 teachers and 439 students in total. Students were studying community health, public health, public health nursing, nursing and midwifery, in the 5 HEIs/partners. There are also 7 associated partners involved in the project which are mainly the national health professional associations and (public) health institutes (see section 2.2), all of which share the same goals in promoting vaccinations and also have the expertise to provide their input to the project. Description of undertaken activities: The EDUVAC project main activities included the development and implementation of a web-based course and an Intensive Course (IC). These were tested and revised in order to be improved according to the feedback received by students, associated partners, the Steering Group (SG), the external reviewer and the National Agency (NA). Different pedagogical approaches and learning material have been developed which are available for open access. Two syllabi are also open access available in order to provide the overall description of the web-based course and the IC and present the different pedagogical approaches and suggestions for their implementation. For the development of the final outcomes, the web-based course took place three times. In addition, two Intensive Courses were implemented (one face-to-face and one virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions). In addition, simulation cases have been developed that can be integrated in any learning process (IC, blended). Evaluation and feedback in EDUVAC project have been core in its process in order to develop the final outcomes. Several dissemination activities during the project cycle and a Multiplier Event at the finalization of the project took place in order to increase the visibility of the project and also inform different stakeholders about project’s goals and outcomes. Finally, throughout the 36 months, meetings were held in order to support and work on the different phases of the project. Results and impact attained: The results and material of the project have been disseminated and they are available for open access (for more info, see www.eduvac.eu). EDUVAC project had a major impact in the education vaccination competence among the students HEIs/partners. The academic community of the HEIs/partners got familiar to work in a multicultural environment and in English language. Furthermore, new pedagogical approaches have been developed and implemented in the curricula with enhancing the digital skills of everyone involved in the project. Longer-term benefits: EDUVAC project strengthens the education of vaccination competence and thus, train the future health professionals who promote health by increasing the vaccination coverage and ultimately promote vaccinations worldwide, especially with the need of the current circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, one of the longer-term benefits was the internationalization of the HEIs/partners which is a process that goes beyond the project life cycle. Finally, EDUVAC project motivated more members of the HEIs/partners to be engaged in this kind of European projects.