Vaccine Acceptance During a Novel Student-led Emergency Department COVID-19 Vaccination Program

Introduction: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic not only exacerbated barriers to healthcare but has also highlighted the trend toward increased vaccine hesitancy. Our goal was to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake through a student-led, emergency department-based (ED) vaccination program.Methods: This prospective, quality-improvement pilot program used medical and pharmacy student volunteers as COVID-19 vaccine screeners in a southern, urban, academic ED. Patients eligible for vaccination were offered either the Janssen-Johnson& Johnson or the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and were educated about vaccine concerns. Vaccine acceptance rates were recorded, as well as reasons for vaccine hesitancy, vaccine brand preferences, and demographics. The primary and secondary quantitative outcomes were overall vaccine acceptance and change in vaccine acceptance after student-provided education, respectively. We performed logistic regression to identify potential variables...
Source: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: research