Microchips and mRNA: How Healthcare Workers are Discussing the COVID Vaccine with Patients

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Tanner Starnes

Abstract or Description

Covid vaccination has been the subject of heated debate since the rollout of vaccines. With the stress placed on the healthcare system because of Covid, health care workers work strenuous conditions while counseling patients on vaccination. This presentation reports on findings from qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 17 healthcare providers across multiple specialties. Interviews were designed to elicit participating providers accounts of their (1) day-to-day working lives during the coronavirus pandemic, (2) perceptions of their patients based on Covid vaccination status, (3) perception of their own responsibility to discuss Covid vaccination with patients, and (4) their strategies for Covid vaccine communication. Findings illustrate the on-the-ground, improvisational strategies that healthcare workers developed to communicate vaccine information and perspectives to patients. Participating healthcare workers saw themselves as working against persuasive digital misinformation and used a range of strategies, including dissemination of scientific evidence about Covid vaccines and personal stories about Covid and vaccination to compel patients to vaccinate. Participants also reported that vaccine communication involved additional emotional and time-based labor and that there was a lack of material resources to support patient-provider vaccine communication. Research is necessary to investigate the effectiveness of vaccine communication strategies on Covid vaccine uptake. These findings also suggest the need for targeted interventions to support health care providers as they face the ongoing repercussions of the pandemic.