Tools to Prepare Your Practice for Flu Season
HCP Fight Flu Toolkit: Guide & Instructions
Whether you’re a primary care physician, nurse, pharmacist, or other health care professional (HCP), you play a significant role in helping protect your patients against influenza. The best available protection is annual influenza vaccination for all patients ages 6 months and older. Your strong influenza vaccine recommendation is one of the most important factors in patients accepting the vaccine.
This HCP Toolkit contains a variety of resources to prepare your practice to Fight Flu. The materials below will:
- equip you to make strong influenza vaccine recommendations
- facilitate productive conversations with your patients
- improve your influenza vaccination rates
How to Make a Strong Flu Vaccine Recommendation
These fact sheets provide information on the timing and types of influenza vaccinations as well as methods to provide a strong influenza vaccine recommendation for adults ages 50-64, ages 65+, and for the general public.
Make a Strong Flu Vaccine Recommendation (Ages 50-64)
Make a Strong Flu Vaccine Recommendation (For Ages 65+)
Make a Strong Flu Recommendation
Prepare Your Practice for Flu Season Deck
Learn techniques on how to make a strong influenza vaccine recommendation to your patients and best practices for increasing flu vaccination rates in your practice.
Request by email the Prepare Your Practice for Flu Season Deck.
Patient Flyer
Share this informational handout with your patients who want additional information, have questions, or decline influenza vaccination at first recommendation. This resource will provide context to the efficacy of the influenza vaccine and highlight its safety.
Appointment Reminder Email Template
Use this email template to remind your patients to schedule appointments for their influenza vaccines. This template is customizable to best fit your practice and patient population, offering language for specific high-risk groups, such as older adults, pregnant women, young children, and people with certain medical conditions.
Pharmacist Guide and Talking Points
Pharmacists play a critical role in protecting patients against influenza and influenza-related complications by advocating for and administrating influenza vaccines. This guide is intended to support discussions between pharmacists and patients about influenza vaccination.
Sample Social Media Content
Click the “More Messages” button below to get sample Twitter and Facebook flu prevention messages to share on your organization’s social media channels.
CDC estimates last year, about 79K people died & 960K people were hospitalized from #flu-related complications.
Featured Video
Carol Hayes, CNM, Describes How She Recommends Flu Vaccine
“How do you recommend flu vaccine to patients and why do you say it that way?” During this segment of the “#HowIRecommend vaccine” video series, Carol Hayes, CNM, describes her flu vaccine conversations with patients.
For additional information visit the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) website and sign-up for CDC influenza email updates.
Additional Resources
- Page last reviewed: November 16, 2018
- Page last updated: November 16, 2018
- Content source:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD)
- Page maintained by: Office of the Associate Director for Communication, Digital Media Branch, Division of Public Affairs