Immunization Service Experience (SE) Toolkit

"The recent global focus on immunization inequity and the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical role that trust, demand, and quality play in encouraging vaccination uptake so that immunization programs are both valued by and can reach everyone."

Immunisation service experience (SE) includes the factors within and beyond the interactions between a health worker and a client that influence immunisation delivery and experience. A positive, person-centred immunisation SE can contribute to confidence, acceptance, demand, and uptake of vaccination, whereas a negative SE could result in mistrust, refusal, or lack of participation in immunisation or other primary healthcare services. Developed by JSI with Gavi support, the SE toolkit introduces the concept of SE as it applies to immunisation programmes and guides countries in addressing SE in their contexts.

A qualitative scoping exercise conducted in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, and Nepal uncovered 13 key components at various levels that contribute to a positive, people-centred SE. The figure below summarises these 13 components visually, emphasising the clients at the centre and the interconnectedness between levels:

The 5 toolkit products are meant to spark discussion around how Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) managers and staff may address and improve the delivery and experience of immunisation. They include:

1. The Getting Started Guide [PDF], a short reference guide that provides information on all products within the toolkit for users who may be leading discussions or activities.
2. A SE Orientation Presentation [PDF], which is a modifiable PowerPoint presentation, designed for a 1-hour session, that can be tailored to fit a country's needs.
3. A 2-minute explainer video (viewable by clicking below), with French and Portuguese subtitles, that can be shown during orientation sessions.
4. A 2-page fact sheet [PDF] that can be printed and shared as a quick summary on immunisation SE.
5. Discussion questions [PDF] that are designed to engage country-level participants in thoughtful discussions around introducing or strengthening immunisation SE.

All products have been designed to be used together or individually, depending on the needs of each country or audience. Toolkit products can be used to:

• Orient: build a shared understanding of SE and why it is important for immunisation, and kickstart advocacy efforts to address SE through programmatic activities.
• Discuss: examine what specific components of SE are challenging in each context, promising interventions or ideas to address, and possible operational barriers.
• Plan: develop a clear action plan of priority activities to improve SE components, leveraging multi-year planning and funding processes where possible.