Healthcare Workers and Covid-19 vaccination

Healthcare Workers and Covid-19 Vaccination
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Healthcare Workers and Covid-19 Vaccination
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant social and economic disruption around the world. Healthcare workers are among the high-risk populations in contracting and dying from the virus. Alhassan et al. (2021), quote the World Health Organization figures, which indicate that over 10,000 healthcare workers in Africa are suffering from the virus, which has rendered the occupation to be harzardous to these people. In Ghana, over 100 HCWs had falled victims of the virus and a significant number had succumbed. Reses et al. (2021) state that the healthcare workers are at risk of contracting COVID-19 because of their occupation that exposes them to infected patients. Therefore, vaccination of healthcare workers is a priority for most countries that have been severely affected by the pandemic.
Despite the statistics showing that healthcare workers are at the highest risk of contracting the virus, these workers have been hesitatnt towards the vaccination process. the FDA approved the first COVID-19 vaccine on August 23, 2021 and since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, among other organizations have actively engaged in promoting the vaccination process. However, the vaccination campaigns have been generally unsuccessful because of hteir failure to address the HCW vaccination concerns. Therefore, to mitigate this impact, it is important to understand the reasons behind the hesitancy among the HCWs. This comprehension will allow vaccine campaigns to be focused on addressing these concerns.
Literature Review
The concerns regarding hesitancy among HCW to participate in the vaccination process has led various researchers to conduct some research to determine the factors that could be contributing to such trends. Alhassan et al. (2021) undertook a study that focused on vaccine uptake among health care workers in Ghana. The main objective of the study was to ascertain the correlation of HCWs propensity to engage in the COVID-19 vaccine trial and accepting the vaccine given the opportunity. The study was web-based and was conducted in sixteen administrative regions in Ghana. According to the findnigs, 48% of the HCWs would participate in the vaccine trial if they had the opportunity. 70% of the respondents noted that they would accept to be vaccinated. Further results revealed that younger workers, non-christians, and those who worked in faith-based health facilities were more likely to engage in the vaccine trial. Female HCWs and those with lower educational qualificatins were less likely to participate in the vaccination process. Those who expressed their unwillingness to participate in the process attributed their stand to fear, safety concerns, mistrust, uncertainty, spiritual, and religious beliefs.
Findings in different regions appeared to reflect closely related factors as causes of hesitancy. Toth-Manikowski et al. (2022) conducted a similar study in the United States. The researchers adopted a survey the utilized the Health Belief Model framework to assess the vaccine hesitancy and the reasons for the workers’ decision to either accept or refuse to be vaccinated. The survey included three large academic medical centers in the Chicagoland area. According to the findings of the study, HCWs were less likely to receive the vaccination if they were Black, Republican, or allergic to any vaccine component. The respondents were more likely to receive the vaccination if they believed that people close to them perceived the exercise as important for them. Based on the findings of this research, race, political affiliation, and one’s health status were important determinants for individuals to receive the vaccination.
Vaccine hesitancy, especially among healthcare service providers is a threat to the global health. These individuals interact more frequently with patients and deal with different people, exposing them and their loved ones to communicable diseases. According to IHPL (2021), the vaccine hesitancy among HCWs can be based on several factors that include safety and efficacy, preference for physiological herd immunity, lack of trust for government, having a sense of personal freesom, sociodemographic features, and organizational factors. These workers also play an essential role in convincing the rest of the population to either accept or reject the vaccine. These findings show that the diversity in vaccine hesitancy among the HCWs call for specific interventions that depend on the degree, type, and cause of the hesitancy. Following this understanding, it is easier to determine the approaches to use and the target population towards promoting vaccination from COVID-19. Evidently, the reasons for hesitancy vary based on the region and hence the need to establish causes of the hesitancy among the HCWs in our region of study.
Aim/Purpose
This study aims to understand whether increasing knowledge of individuals about the disease will make them to embrace the vaccination exercise.
Research Question
1 Are people who are knowledgeable about COVID 19 more likely to get vaccinated than people with less knowledge?
Methodology
The study utilized a mixed-methods research approach based on a survey conducted using open-ended questions and a quantitative aspect to assess the perceptions and attitudes that determine the probability to accept or reject the vaccination exercise. The qualitative data obtained helped in obtaining the initial quantitative results. The study included an online cross-sectional survey to evaluate the acceptability of the vaccine uptake and other related factors. The interviews were conducted with a sample of students who agreed to complete the a survey on their friends and family to explore the various reasons that determine vaccine acceptability.
Design
The students used short surveys to collect data because such surveys keep respondents engaged and collect higher quality data. The questions used in the survey were more specific, which allowed the researchers to collect only relevant information and save time. Besides saving time, the surveys are also faster, allow the researcher to obtain data from multiple sources, and are cheaper. The survey covered various topics that included the demographics of the respondents (age, gender, student, HCW), their knowledge about the source of COVID-19, their information source on the virus, their exposure to the virus, how their situation would be if they caught the virus, their knowledge about the disease, their likelihood to get a vaccine, and the reasons why they believe that they would or would not access the vaccine.
Sample and Setting
The study focused on 25 students in a northeastern public university research class, in which each student reached out to 15 people that included friends and family and asked the questions. Each student recorded their answ...