Parents were considered an important stakeholder group for communications during the H1N1 response at the University of Illinois. As part of the outreach to parents, Dr. David Lawrance, Medical Director at McKinley Health Center, wrote letters for an electronic newsletter that is distributed to up to 20,000 parents of Illinois students. The letters "had a tremendous reach and kept parental complaints down to a very small number. They were well-informed and got these compelling letters," said Robert Palinkas, MD, Director of McKinley Health Center.
Communications
Maps, guides, and arrows formed the basis of the University of Chicago pandemic flu vaccination distribution plan in April 2009. The plan driving the distribution was inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference". University public health planners used strategies from the bestselling book to maximize seasonal influenza vaccine distribution information.
During two days at the beginning of the H1N1 outbreak in fall 2009, members of the Purdue Chapter of the American Red Cross, along with other student volunteers, distributed brief informational materials on H1N1 to students while riding CityBus vehicles on routes serving the campus. The students also gave passengers four ounce bottles of waterless hand sanitizer. The object was to use direct student-to-student communication to create awareness of the illness, symptoms, remediation and containment strategies, while encouraging immunization with the H1N1 vaccine as it became available.
The University of Michigan used a variety of communications tactics, from old-fashioned to of-the-moment methods, to reach as many members of the campus community as possible with information on H1N1.
University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM), with more than 42,000 students, experienced a surge of H1N1 cases in fall 2009. The University Health Services (UHS) clinic is normally staffed by an on-call clinician on Labor Day, yet the flood of phone calls from sick and worried students overwhelmed the one staff member. Due to the rush of calls, the clinic was compelled to open with the assistance of physicians who volunteered to begin screening and treating students before the semester began.
When the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) established its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in spring 2009, it used an e-mail platform called MHUB to manage H1N1-related communication across campus. The communications division of the EOC had a difficult job during the H1N1 outbreak, because it was responsible for creating and distributing large amounts of urgent information that was subject to change without much warning.
During H1N1 response, the Minnesota Department of Health convened periodic conference calls with all higher education institutions in Minnesota. This was the first time that direct communication has been organized between the state health department and higher education. During the calls, the Minnesota State Epidemiologist provided H1N1 updates, answered questions, and requested reports from institutions on status and challenges. One college campus on the call reported a concern that athletes continued to attend practices and games despite flu-like symptoms.
As the fall 2009 semester loomed at Pennsylvania State University, it became clear to Shelley Haffner that she needed extra help in order to respond to the threat of novel H1N1 influenza on campus. Haffner is the infection control nurse manager at University Health Service, and the person responsible for infection control and prevention.
