Assessing Vaccine Hesitancy Among Pediatric Healthcare Providers

Background: Vaccine compliance has fallen short of national and international targets, generating preventable disease outbreaks. While vaccine hesitancy in the general public is a factor in under-vaccination, vaccine hesitancy among healthcare providers remains an under-recognized obstacle to pediatric vaccine completion. Objective: The aim of this quality improvement study was to assess provider attitudes and practices regarding vaccine efficacy, safety, adverse effects, and recommendations. Methods: To assess for changes in their vaccine confidence, a convenience sample of three physicians and seven advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) from a pediatric primary care clinic anonymously completed a self-administered survey, participated in an educational intervention, and then completed another survey. Results: All eight providers denied personal vaccine hesitancy. However, one APRN did not fully vaccinate their child due to a medical exemption and another APRN reported concerns about influenza vaccine efficacy. While the mean confidence score for educating vaccine-hesitant parents increased from pre (8.75) to post intervention (9.13), the increase was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The pre-intervention survey affirmed the presence of parental vaccine hesitancy, but not provider vaccine hesitancy. Nursing Implications: Further study is needed to identify and address provider vaccine hesitancy to improve their vaccine confidence and, ultimately, pediatric vaccine completion.