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An Opportunity to Understand Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccination: Perspectives from EMS Professionals

Some healthcare professionals, including emergency medical service (EMS) professionals, remain hesitant about receiving COVID-19 vaccines. This study sought to understand EMS professionals’ perspectives regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Using open-ended comments from a national survey deployed electro...

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Autores principales: MacEwan, Sarah R., Gaughan, Alice A., Gregory, Megan E., Rush, Laura J., Powell, Jonathan R., Kurth, Jordan D., Panchal, Ashish R., McAlearney, Ann Scheck
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8950335/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35335012
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10030380
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author MacEwan, Sarah R.
Gaughan, Alice A.
Gregory, Megan E.
Rush, Laura J.
Powell, Jonathan R.
Kurth, Jordan D.
Panchal, Ashish R.
McAlearney, Ann Scheck
author_facet MacEwan, Sarah R.
Gaughan, Alice A.
Gregory, Megan E.
Rush, Laura J.
Powell, Jonathan R.
Kurth, Jordan D.
Panchal, Ashish R.
McAlearney, Ann Scheck
author_sort MacEwan, Sarah R.
collection PubMed
description Some healthcare professionals, including emergency medical service (EMS) professionals, remain hesitant about receiving COVID-19 vaccines. This study sought to understand EMS professionals’ perspectives regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Using open-ended comments from a national survey deployed electronically to over 19,000 EMS professionals in April of 2021, we examined perspectives about acceptance of and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines. Survey comments revealed differences in perspectives between vaccinated and unvaccinated EMS professionals regarding their personal role in improving public health through COVID-19 vaccination as well as vaccine benefits and the protection conferred by vaccination. Unvaccinated individuals also expressed concerns over the research and development of the COVID-19 vaccines that led to their decision not to get vaccinated. Individuals who were vaccinated suggested ways to increase uptake of the vaccine including having healthcare professionals serve as leaders for vaccination and educating individuals about COVID-19 vaccination through credible resources. Vaccine hesitancy remains a challenge to achieving herd immunity to COVID-19 through vaccination, even among healthcare professionals. Understanding the perspectives of those who have chosen not to be vaccinated can help direct strategies to reduce confusion and concerns. The perspectives of vaccinated individuals may also be valuable in identifying opportunities to promote vaccination in the professional setting.
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spelling pubmed-89503352022-03-26 An Opportunity to Understand Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccination: Perspectives from EMS Professionals MacEwan, Sarah R. Gaughan, Alice A. Gregory, Megan E. Rush, Laura J. Powell, Jonathan R. Kurth, Jordan D. Panchal, Ashish R. McAlearney, Ann Scheck Vaccines (Basel) Article Some healthcare professionals, including emergency medical service (EMS) professionals, remain hesitant about receiving COVID-19 vaccines. This study sought to understand EMS professionals’ perspectives regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Using open-ended comments from a national survey deployed electronically to over 19,000 EMS professionals in April of 2021, we examined perspectives about acceptance of and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines. Survey comments revealed differences in perspectives between vaccinated and unvaccinated EMS professionals regarding their personal role in improving public health through COVID-19 vaccination as well as vaccine benefits and the protection conferred by vaccination. Unvaccinated individuals also expressed concerns over the research and development of the COVID-19 vaccines that led to their decision not to get vaccinated. Individuals who were vaccinated suggested ways to increase uptake of the vaccine including having healthcare professionals serve as leaders for vaccination and educating individuals about COVID-19 vaccination through credible resources. Vaccine hesitancy remains a challenge to achieving herd immunity to COVID-19 through vaccination, even among healthcare professionals. Understanding the perspectives of those who have chosen not to be vaccinated can help direct strategies to reduce confusion and concerns. The perspectives of vaccinated individuals may also be valuable in identifying opportunities to promote vaccination in the professional setting. MDPI 2022-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8950335/ /pubmed/35335012 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10030380 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
MacEwan, Sarah R.
Gaughan, Alice A.
Gregory, Megan E.
Rush, Laura J.
Powell, Jonathan R.
Kurth, Jordan D.
Panchal, Ashish R.
McAlearney, Ann Scheck
An Opportunity to Understand Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccination: Perspectives from EMS Professionals
title An Opportunity to Understand Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccination: Perspectives from EMS Professionals
title_full An Opportunity to Understand Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccination: Perspectives from EMS Professionals
title_fullStr An Opportunity to Understand Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccination: Perspectives from EMS Professionals
title_full_unstemmed An Opportunity to Understand Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccination: Perspectives from EMS Professionals
title_short An Opportunity to Understand Concerns about COVID-19 Vaccination: Perspectives from EMS Professionals
title_sort opportunity to understand concerns about covid-19 vaccination: perspectives from ems professionals
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8950335/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35335012
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10030380
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