Nursing practice in view of adverse events following vaccination

Abstract

The objectives of this article are to identify the adverse events following vaccination, the focus if nursing practice, using the Post-Vaccination Adverse Events Information System database, and discuss on the nurses' practice on the surveillance for those events. Secondary data were those regarding the vaccines applied in the Brazilian public health system, in the period from 1999 to 2008, totaling 65,442 registers, 59,899 of which were confirmed and 1,403 were associated with another vaccine. The 16 nursing practice events totaled 21,727 registers. Although they account for 35.4% of the registers, the data do not reflect the reality, because their reliability depends on the knowledge network that comprises diagnosis, notification and inclusion in the system. Discussions were made on interventions for the most prevalent events: fever and local events. Most interventions established in the adverse events manual was in agreement with the literature, though there were differences in the content between conducts for the same event due to different vaccines.