May 20, 2015 - Week 3 - During the first week of rotation, Doug had a patient come in and ask about the new Prevnar 13 vaccination. He wasn’t very familiar with it, so couldn’t really give an explanation to the patient. He asked me to do a bit of research on it, and I ended up making a pamphlet for community healthcare providers. This pamphlet tells him what Prevnar 13 is (a vaccine for pneumococcal disease for children and older adults), who should receive it, and how and when to give it. Prior to Prevnar 13, there was Prevnar 7 for kids, and a Pneumovax 23 for older adults. It’s a bit confusing because the CDC still recommends both, you just have to know when to give which. Well, today we had a patient come in for Prevnar 13, so it was cool seeing it come full circle, and being able to answer questions about it. He’s also now using the pamphlets as an educational sheet for the patients.
