Nurses must combat vaccine hesitancy among fellow nurses
Vaccine hesitancy erodes public trust in nurses, as well as the credibility of nursing as a profession rooted in science.
Nurses have been rated the most honest and ethical professionals in America for 19 consecutive years, according to the Gallup Poll, and for good reason: We provide essential care and services in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, public health departments, schools and other settings in the best and worst of times.
We earn the public’s trust by adhering to the Code of Ethics for Nurses, boiled down to a first principle of centering the needs of patients. Although the pandemic continues to showcase the dedication of nurses who labor to save lives and contain outbreaks, it also spotlights a problem within the profession that manifested quietly for years and is now reaping serious consequences: vaccine hesitancy.
Official data on nurse vaccination rates are not available, but national estimates range from 56% to 88%, with variation by employment setting and geographic location.
An American Nurses Association survey conducted in July 2021 reveals that 83% of the 125 Ohio nurse respondents had either received or planned to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
And yet, some Ohio health care systems struggle to enforce mandates as a subset of nurses threaten to quit over vaccine mandates. How did we get here? Lagging uptake of annual influenza vaccine was a warning sign that some nurses would hesitate to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Several studies published the last two decades show that a sizable percentage of nurses decline annual influenza vaccine, in some studies more frequently than pharmacists and physicians.
These group differences are commonly attributed to different levels of educational preparation and, while this may be a factor, it is not the only one. Nurses cite multiple reasons for not taking a COVID-19 vaccine, including (unsubstantiated) fertility concerns and distrust in the process of vaccine development.
Vaccine-related misconceptions held by nurses are documented in the scientific literature as far back as the late 1980s and are now readily amplified on social media platforms, sometimes by nurses themselves.
We affirm that nurses have a right to bodily autonomy and therefore can refuse a safe and efficacious vaccine.
However, such “individual” decisions ripple through communities, in some cases reducing access to essential services in rural areas and closure of hospital beds even in well-resourced metropolitan areas.
When nurses’ refusal to vaccinate forces tradeoffs between keeping vulnerable patients safe from infection and keeping hospital beds open, the profession must engage in honest selfassessment. What are we doing, and not doing, to produce this outcome?
Vaccine hesitancy erodes public trust in nurses, as well as the credibility of nursing as a profession rooted in science.
This is a serious problem that is unlikely to self-correct given pervasive dissemination of scientific dis- and misinformation.
We urge nurses in Ohio’s regulatory agencies, universities and educational programs and health care systems to vigorously combat vaccine hesitancy, with haste, before the next pandemic arrives.
Heather L. Tubbs Cooley is a nurse scientist and educator and an associate professor of nursing at Ohio State University. She has held licensure as a registered nurse since 2004.
Jin Jun is a nurse scientist and educator and an assistant professor of nursing atohio State University. She has held licensure as a registered nurse since 2003.