Lessons learned from frontline skilled nursing facility staff regarding COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy

Abstract

Background: Presently a median of 37.5% of the U.S. skilled nursing facility (SNF) workforce has been vaccinated for COVID-19. It is essential to understand vaccine hesitancy among SNF workers to inform vaccine campaigns going forward.Objective: To describe the concerns raised among healthcare workers and staff from SNFs during town hall meetings.Design: Sixty-three SNFs from four corporations were invited to send Opinion Leaders, outspoken staff from nursing, nurse aid, dietary, housekeeping or recreational therapy, to attend a 1-h virtual town hall meeting. Meetings used a similar format where the moderator solicited concerns that the attendees themselves had or had heard from others in the facility about the COVID-19 vaccine. Physicians and moderators used personal stories to address concerns and reaffirmed positive emotions.Setting: Twenty-six video town hall meetings with SNF staff.Participants: Healthcare workers and staff, with physicians serving as content experts.Measurement: Questions and comments about the COVID-19 vaccines noted by physicians.Results: One hundred and ninety three staff from 50 facilities participated in 26 meetings between December 30, 2020 and January 15, 2021. Most staff reported getting information about the vaccine from friends or social media.Concerns about how rapidly the vaccines were developed and side effects, including infertility or pregnancy related concerns, were frequently raised. There were no differences in concerns raised by discipline. Questions about returning to prior activities after being vaccinated were common and offered the opportunity to build on positive emotions to reduce vaccine hesitancy.Conclusions: Misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine was widespread among SNF staff. Sharing positive emotions and stories may be more effective than sharing data when attempting to reduce vaccine hesitancy in SNF staff.

Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes during the start of COVID-19 vaccination program: A content analysis on Twitter data

“…According to their findings; this theme involves some theories such as "Vaccine is being developed to limit or control population size", "Vaccine will contain Microchip or tracking device", "5G/3G technology related to COVID-19 infection and vaccine", and "Vaccine makers created COVID-19" that we also met under this theme in our study (16). A similar concern was also shown in Berry et al's study as "Microchip" (13).…”

“…We of the opinion that this theme frequency was higher than others because of the fast-track vaccine development process due to the emergency need of the vaccine to reduce the effects of the pandemic. Berry et al's study showed similar concern as "The vaccine was developed too quickly" (13). Also, lack of information about the results of phase 3 trials of Coronavac, which is the only COVID-19 vaccine that was delivered to Turkey during our research, may increase the arguments in this theme.…”

Adverse reactions to Pfizer‐BioNTech vaccination of healthcare workers at Malta's state hospital

“… 4 One of the often cited reason for vaccine hesitancy among these groups is concern about the side effects, especially in the light of the rapid development of these vaccines. 5 …”

Factors associated with current posttraumatic stress disorder among COVID-19 vaccinated older adults in Israel

“…Vaccine concerns were particularly prominent in Israel during the initial vaccination stage, as Israel was the first country to roll out a nationwide vaccination program (Ministry of Health, Israel, 2021). As in other countries, one concern was that “vaccination is more dangerous than COVID-19” ( Berry et al, 2021 ). Therefore, it was expected that vaccination may also be a stressor due to its novelty and rumored risks, which we predict will be positively associated with PTSD symptoms.…”