· Did you have prior ‘knowledge’ about immunisation safety for children/pregnant women prior to undertaking this assessment? Describe your understanding of this. · How did you acquire this knowledge...

Did you have prior ‘knowledge’ about immunization safety for children/pregnant women prior to undertaking this assessment? Describe your understanding of this.
Immunization is one of the best and efficient public health intervention invented in the world. However many people have uncertainty on its effectiveness and safety (Clift et al, 2014). Several factor effect their choice to get their children vaccinated, including their sociodemographic characteristics, their less faith in the public health system, their lack of knowledge and attitudes towards immunization practice (Boddice, 2016). Prior to undertaking this assessment My knowledge about immunization safety for children was very less. My fear over the use of mercury, formaldehyde, or aluminum in vaccines highly influenced my attitude towards the practice of immunization. An incident where a baby aged six months died within 48 hours after receiving pediatric vaccines, in my locality made me believe that vaccine can sometimes cause harmful effects, illness or even death. Although after autopsy it was reported that the child might have contracted pneumonia few days ago, that was the actual reason for his death. Immunization experts also cleared that the immunisation was not likely to be the reason of the death.
How did you acquire this knowledge (what way/s of knowing/where did the information come from?
Many parents have different apprehension on vaccine safety. The most common fear is the presence of aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde, residuals such as fragment of human or animal DNA, and also that the various number of vaccines might be overpowering, deteriorating or distu
ing the immune system of a child(Geoghegan et al 2020). As a result, some te
ify that immunization can cause diabetes, autism, encepalitis, delay in development of a child, damage central nervous system, neurological disorders among many kids (Clift et al 2014). The basis on which people decide not to vaccinate their children. Therefore lack of confidence in immunization safety, due to thought of adverse events, has been identified as one of the key factors of not getting their children vaccinated (Kennedy et al, 2011). For this reason healthcare professionals, mainly those working in primary care or frontline are the main influencers on immunization. It very essential, that they are backed by having high knowledge, have access to trustworthy, fact-based data on immunization (Hoekstra et al 2016). So during my course of study as registered nurse I came across various research articles and studies which cleared my thoughts on immunization safety. It was then I understood that as with all the vaccine it has to go through wide-range, systematic and detailed testing to make sure it is not risky prior to being introduced in the market. The drug under experiment is first tested on animals to assess its safety and usefulness to prevent diseases. In human clinical trials the vaccine is tested in three stages. A sequence of steps is ca
ied out , together with evaluation of effectiveness, safety, public health policy...