Concerns, attitudes, and intended practices of Caribbean healthcare workers concerning COVID-19 vaccination: A cross-sectional study

Background The Caribbean has a long history of being a global leader in immunization, and one factor contributing to this success has been the commitment of healthcare workers in promoting the benefits of vaccines. Healthcare workers play a critical role in building trust between the public and the immunization program and are generally cited as the most trusted source of information on vaccination. Healthcare workers themselves, therefore, must be confident in vaccination as a public health good and able to transmit this confidence to those who trust them. However, just as with the general public, healthcare workers develop confidence at different rates and may be susceptible to misinformation about vaccines. Methods During April and May 2021, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) conducted a mixed-methods survey to assess vaccination attitudes, opinions, and reasoning of 1197 healthcare workers across 14 Caribbean countries. Findings Seventy-seven percent of respondents expressed clear intention to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as soon as possible. Intention to be vaccinated as soon as possible was expressed by lower proportions of nurses (66%) and allied health professionals (62%) than physicians (85%) and by younger respondents than older ones (64% vs. 85%, respectively; p < 0.001 for all these comparisons). Across 32 questions about attitudes and opinions, vaccine hesitancy was consistently expressed by higher proportions of nurses and allied health professionals than physicians and by younger respondents than older ones. Interpretation Insights from the survey are helping PAHO address healthcare worker concerns with informative messages and supporting countries in policy development to increase vaccine confidence and coverage among Caribbean healthcare workers. Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Automated summary

Healthcare workers in the Caribbean play a critical role in promoting vaccination but some of them exhibit vaccine hesitancy. A survey conducted among healthcare workers in the Caribbean revealed that the majority expressed clear intention to get vaccinated for COVID-19 as soon as possible, however, nurses, allied health professionals, and younger respondents showed relatively lower intention to be vaccinated and higher levels of vaccine hesitancy compared to physicians and older respondents.