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As improved COVID-19 vaccines become available this fall, a study published by researchers at UMass Chan Medical School about primary care physicians’ experiences with vaccine-hesitant patients may shed light on the challenges and opportunities surrounding expanding vaccine acceptance.
The paper, published in the journal Patient Education and Counseling, features focus groups with 40 primary care physicians (PCPs) practicing in central Massachusetts. The focus groups were conducted from December 2021 to January 2022, approximately one year after the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
The researchers focused on doctors’ experiences with patients who were very reluctant to get vaccinated and were unable to convince them to get the vaccine.
About 1 in 6 people in the United States have not received even one dose of COVID-19 vaccines since they first became available in late 2020, according to the researchers.
“What we heard from primary care physicians was a common frustration that they felt like they had trouble communicating with some of their patients, even though they had a pre-existing relationship and felt that their patients really trusted them. This was being touted as one of the best ways to get people vaccinated,” said lead researcher Kimberly Fisher, MD, associate professor of medicine.
Dr Fisher said he believes the impasse reflects the level of misinformation circulating in society and that health care workers must respond.
Fisher said challenges continue as the pandemic enters a new epidemic phase.
“In the initial communications, public health officials clearly weren’t aware that it was going to be required annually, so I think there’s a level of frustration among patients about having to get it every year, like a flu shot,” she said.
But two things are promising.
Physicians who have been able to offer vaccinations in their own offices say it’s made a big difference, Fisher said.These anecdotes are consistent with a January 2021 survey by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which found that people who were reluctant to get vaccinated were significantly more likely to prefer getting vaccinated in a doctor’s office.
Other studies of flu vaccinations have found that people are more likely to get vaccinated if their doctor can administer the shot immediately on-site.
About half of the primary care clinics that participated in a separate study offered COVID-19 vaccinations on-site, Fisher said.
A second ray of hope came from her doctor, who practiced what Fisher calls motivational interviewing. “She really listened to people, and rather than trying to convince them of reasons why they should have it, she took the time to look for ways to validate their concerns and demonstrate her partnership with them,” Fisher said.
Fisher and Daniel Marin, PsyD, MPH, professor of family medicine and community health, recently received an R01 grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to develop and test a communications training program.
The program will train PCPs on how to make presumptive vaccination recommendations, which previous studies have shown to be effective in increasing vaccination rates, and will also train providers on the principles of motivational interviewing for vaccination communications.
Many of the doctors who discussed reluctant patients with the vaccine in focus groups said they had learned how to identify patients who would be difficult to persuade and did not pressure them to get the shot.
“And they had good reasons. The biggest reason was they wanted to maintain relationships,” Fisher said. “They might not get vaccinated, but we can convince them to get a mammogram, a colonoscopy, whatever.”
Further information: Kimberly A. Fisher et al., “Primary care providers’ perspectives on discussing COVID-19 vaccination with vaccine-hesitant patients: A qualitative study,” Patient Education and Counseling (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2024.108369
Courtesy of University of Massachusetts Medical School
Source: Researchers Share the Challenges and Potential Hopes of Talking to COVID-19 Vaccine-hesitant Patients (September 25, 2024) Retrieved September 25, 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-potential-discussing-covid-vaccines-hesitant.html
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