Interactive Training as a Method to Change the Attitude to the Vaccination at the Example of COVID-19 Vaccine

Abstract

The new infectious disease COVID-19 was first registered in late 2019 in Wuhan (China) and has since spread significantly around the world. It is known that 2020 was a year of quarantine measures in most countries around the world, where quarantine was set in attempt to stop or slow the spread of the disease until the vaccine is developed.

The vaccination campaign began in late 2020 in a number of developed countries. To date, several coronavirus vaccines have been registered in Ukraine: Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, CoronaVac / Sinovac Biotech and Oxford-AstraZeneca. However, the pace of vaccination in the country is slowing down due to the low readiness of certain segments of the population for vaccination.

The objective: to analyze the changes at family doctors and nurses attitude who had the moderate or low readiness for COVID-19 vaccination before and after the interactive training; development of interactive training using practical and theoretical techniques to increase motivation for vaccination.

Materials and methods. The study was conducted with the participation of 541 nurses (doctors and nurses) of different gander, aged from 19 to 67 years, employees from urban and rural clinics, who participated in interactive training about COVID-19 vaccinatoin. At the time of the training, 265 health workers had been vaccinated. The trainings were scheduled for 6 months (March-September 2021).

Results. A comparison of the ratio of readiness to be vaccinated before and after training was calculated. Statistical analysis showed the link between the profession (doctor or nurse) and the level of readiness for training. The number of health workers who were completely unready to be vaccinated decreased from 9% before training to 1% – after it; the number of those who assessed themselves as unready – decreased from 14% to 5%. The number of people who hesitated – decreased from 57% to 23%. At the same time, the number of those who were ready to be vaccinated increased from 19% to 55%, and those who were absolutely ready - from 1% to 16%.

Conclusions. Interactive trainings or special course in education curriculum with evidence of vaccination efficacy should be used to ensure readiness for immunoprophylaxis among patients and health professionals.

Vaccination remains the most effective strategy for preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 infection.