Healthcare Workers and Covid-19 vaccination

Healthcare Workers and Covid-19 Vaccination
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Healthcare Workers and Covid-19 Vaccination
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant social and economic disruption around the world. Healthcare workers are among the high-risk populations in contracting and dying from the virus. Alhassan et al. (2021), quote the World Health Organization figures, which indicate that over 10,000 healthcare workers in Africa are suffering from the virus, which has rendered the occupation to be harzardous to these people. In Ghana, over 100 HCWs had falled victims of the virus and a significant number had succumbed. Reses et al. (2021) state that the healthcare workers are at risk of contracting COVID-19 because of their occupation that exposes them to infected patients. Therefore, vaccination of healthcare workers is a priority for most countries that have been severely affected by the pandemic.
Despite the statistics showing that healthcare workers are at the highest risk of contracting the virus, these workers have been hesitatnt towards the vaccination process. the FDA approved the first COVID-19 vaccine on August 23, 2021 and since then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, among other organizations have actively engaged in promoting the vaccination process. However, the vaccination campaigns have been generally unsuccessful because of hteir failure to address the HCW vaccination concerns. Therefore, to mitigate this impact, it is important to understand the reasons behind the hesitancy among the HCWs. This comprehension will allow vaccine campaigns to be focused on addressing these concerns.
Literature Review
The concerns regarding hesitancy among HCW to participate in the vaccination process has led various researchers to conduct some research to determine the factors that could be contributing to such trends. Alhassan et al. (2021) undertook a study that focused on vaccine uptake among health care workers in Ghana. The main objective of the study was to ascertain the correlation of HCWs propensity to engage in the COVID-19 vaccine trial and accepting the vaccine given the opportunity. The study was web-based and was conducted in sixteen administrative regions in Ghana. According to the findnigs, 48% of the HCWs would participate in the vaccine trial if they had the opportunity. 70% of the respondents noted that they would accept to be vaccinated. Further results revealed that younger workers, non-christians, and those who worked in faith-based health facilities were more likely to engage in the vaccine trial. Female HCWs and those with lower educational qualificatins were less likely to participate in the vaccination process. Those who expressed their unwillingness to participate in the process attributed their stand to fear, safety concerns, mistrust, uncertainty, spiritual, and religious beliefs.
Findings in different regions appeared to reflect closely related factors as causes of hesitancy. Toth-Manikowski et al. (2022) conducted a similar study in the United States. The researchers adopted a survey the utilized the Health Belief Model framework to assess the vaccine hesitancy and ...