Drs. Sandman and Lanard have published a new article that is worth a read even if one is not a healthcare worker. Unfortunately, many of the general public also hold the beliefs and misconceptions addressed.
Convincing Health Care Workers to Get a Flu Shot … Without the Hype
Susan Keady, an infection control practitioner in Alaska, recently sent the following comment to this website’s Guestbook:
My hospital is struggling, as we do every year, trying to get hospital employees to accept influenza immunization. There seem to be two issues here.
First, people say “I don’t need a vaccine because the flu is no big deal” or “because I never get the flu.” It’s a high-hazard, low-outrage risk. Of course, most of the hazard is to our patients.
Second, employees tell us that the flu vaccine is dangerous, has serious side effects, and may have unrecognized adverse effects on health. Vaccination is low-hazard, high-outrage.
Any suggestions on preparing messages to deal with both these issues? We are not finding that education or evidence work!
Keady framed the problem perfectly. For all too many health care workers (HCWs), influenza is high-hazard and low-outrage, whereas vaccination to protect against it is low-hazard and high-outrage. Since outrage influences people’s responses to risk more than hazard does, it’s not shocking that only about 40% of U.S. health care workers actually get the shot, not much higher than the percentage of the general population.
An important new reason why some HCWs are outraged about flu vaccination is the increasing pressure they’re under to get vaccinated. Outside the health care field, vaccination outrage attaches mainly to childhood vaccines that are required or near-required, especially the MMR. Flu vaccination is usually a low-outrage issue; people simply decide yea or nay as they prefer. But that may be changing. If flu vaccination pressure on the general public mounts, and especially if more states and school districts add influenza to the mandatory vaccination list, we should expect increases in community outrage, parallel to the increases we’re already seeing among HCWs.
So how should a hospital, nursing home, or doctor’s office persuade its people to roll up their sleeves (or inhale the nasal spray)?
Peter Sandman has done great work on the Risk Communication front, work I hold in high esteem, along with a tad bit of envy for the expertise in a field so crucial to anyone involved in any sort of pandemic awareness activity.
Go give it a read. Important insights – even if one or three of them might have one squirming a bit uncomfortably.
