industry & reform
that space into a group that feels that to break away or to accept even one vaccine would be doing a disservice to others who strongly and passionately oppose vaccination .
Instead we would use a term like ‘ vaccine refusers ’. That is acknowledging that they have opted to not accept the vaccine , but we want to certainly keep a door open to a conversation . They may be open to discussing vaccination down the track or they may change their mind . We don ’ t want to make them feel like they have to walk away from all of their values and the community they feel they belong to in order to get this or another vaccine .
The same goes in the healthcare setting ; we will have some healthcare workers who are uncertain about vaccination , have concerns , or maybe low confidence in a vaccine . For many years we ’ ve documented this for the influenza vaccine and certainly have seen the same elements emerge for COVID .
Many of the reasons why healthcare workers decline or refuse to get vaccinated echo the sentiments that we see in the community , but we make assumptions when it comes to health workers that they would be very open to the idea of a vaccine and that they would understand the rationale , how it ’ s been developed and how it ’ s been tested , and would have no qualms about the safety .
That ’ s where we often fall down . Those assumptions are not accurate . We certainly have some health workers who have concerns around what would be the safety effects of a vaccine , and would share the same kind of sentiment that the vaccine has been rushed through , as we ’ ve been hearing some community members say .
Given that we ’ ve got a high number of female staff members within our hospitals , there will be those who need further support because they have concerns around the impact on their fertility . That ’ s where we think some of the key issues lie . One of the reasons why we see this 5 to 7 per cent of staff members in some settings either refusing to get the vaccine or uncertain about it is probably because of the way that we approach conversations with staff , and about the resources we provide to staff members to support their understanding around the vaccines .
When we say ‘ health worker ’, we often think about doctors and nurses , but health workers encompass a huge amount of personnel within a clinical setting . There are many , many staff members in those settings who don ’ t have the same sort of clinical background , and work in really important nonclinical ancillary roles . They may not have day-today conversations about immunisation , and so they may not get the same level of information that a doctor or a nurse working in primary care has .
What are the worst things employers can do when their health workers are saying they have concerns about the vaccine ? We jump to the conclusion that for people who haven ’ t received the vaccine , it ’ s all about hesitancy , but
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The reasons why healthcare workers refuse to get vaccinated echo the sentiments we see in the community .
it could also be around access . Because the recommendations have changed , and the availability of vaccines has been up and down , in some parts of the country we are still working through those access issues .
The number one thing here is making sure we truly understand what ’ s happening on the ground amongst our staff . We always recommend talking to staff members themselves , and if there ’ s capacity , do some short surveys , get in some polls , get in maybe some focus groups with staff right now to understand what is happening in those areas where coverage is still lower than where it needs to be .
It may be that some of these staff members would feel more confident to go and have that one-on-one conversation with their own GP , or the health worker themselves has a chronic health condition – they may need to feel comfortable about the vaccine in terms of what drugs they ’ re on or about their treatments , and that might require a conversation with their specialist .
It ’ s about having opportunity for sharing knowledge , finding the factor that may motivate the health worker . That might not be about stopping severe disease , but may be about going to visit family members abroad . It may not always be just about their clinical situation . And it ’ s taking this time , and that ’ s a challenging thing in a busy hospital or a clinical setting when you ’ ve got a large number of staff to get through . A proportion of staff members will have English as a second language . Having resources for them in language , in tools that actually speak to these staff members , is also incredibly important .
Some states have vaccine mandates and some don ’ t . Do you think we need a federal mandate ? It ’ s important again to look at the vaccine setting pre-COVID here in Australia . We ’ ve had mandates for flu vaccination that vary across the states and territories . This includes vaccines for conditions such as the measles , mumps , rubella , diptheria ,
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