The PEACH Project: Improving Provider Education for HPV Vaccination

In the United States, the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) is human
papillomavirus (HPV) and although it is estimated that in the United States, 79 million people
currently have HPV and an estimated 14 million people will become infected each year,
vaccination rates to decrease HPV and associated cancers remains low (Jones et al., 2017). The
Provider Education Achieving Community HPV Prevention (PEACH) program was created to
enhance provider knowledge and understanding of the HPV vaccine and improve vaccination
rates through a provider education program. The qualitative improvement project was conducted
at a non-profit family planning clinic in West Palm Beach and a primary care pediatric outpatient
facility in Atlantis, Florida. The project leaders utilized Icek Ajzen’s Theory of Planned
Behavior to provide a framework to further understand the mindset and decision-making process
patients and parents go through while deciding to vaccinate against HPV.