Attitudes and hesitations about the COVID-19 vaccine of healthcare personnel working in Covid intensive care units: Kayseri City Hospital experience

When vaccination started in our country after the Covid pandemic started, healthcare workers were determined as the priority group for COVID-19 vaccine by the Ministry of Health. In order to evaluate the vaccination attitudes of intensive care workers, we conducted a survey on physicians and nurses working in covid intensive care units. The questionnaire consisting of 39 questions was sent electronically to the intensive care workers (physicians and nurses) in the hospital. Filling out the questionnaire was on a voluntary basis and the names of those who filled it were not asked. The questions focused on the general opinion about the vaccines and COVID-19 vaccine. A total of 127 intensive care workers completed the questionnaire (34.5% response rate). Of the respondents, 26.7% (n: 34) were physicians and 93 were intensive care nurses. Of those surveyed, 33.8% were fully vaccinated and 8 had never been vaccinated. While 50% of the doctors are fully vaccinated (n:17), this rate is 27.9% (n:26) for nurses. While 97.7% of those who said they think my child should have all the vaccines included in the vaccination calendar were fully vaccinated against the covid vaccine, 7.1% of those who did not have the vaccine were against childhood vaccines, and 9.5% were hesitant against these vaccines. Of those who were missing the Covid vaccine, 25% were also missing hepatitis B vaccines. 88% of the study population received initial 2 doses of vaccines. However, reluctance to take booster doses was 55%. In the meta-analysis of Abdelmoneim et al., the actual intake of the booster dose was 31%, while the intention to be a booster was 79%. The booster dose rate in our study population was 33%, similar to the meta-analysis. In the vaccination attitude study conducted by Ragazzi et al. in Italy, hesitancy about vaccination was 17% in general. In our study population, vaccination rejection and hesitation were found to be 16.6% in total. In the study of Mongua-Rodriguez et al. vaccine hesitation and fear of side effects were associated with distrust of authority, and there was a similar relationship in our study. Vaccine refusal and vaccine hesitancy is a global health problem that has been increasing in recent years, especially threatening children. Although it is very surprising to see this hesitation and even opposition among the relatively senior health workers working in the intensive care unit, it is necessary to insist on education.