Building COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence, Acceptance, and Advocacy among Healthcare Workers and Communities

Widespread COVID-19 vaccination among our population is a key component in the battle to contain the pandemic. Despite knowledge about the effects of infection with COVID-19, many people remain hesitant to receive vaccination, even among healthcare professionals. Reasons for vaccine hesitancy include a lack of trust in the methodology to develop and test COVID-19 vaccines rapidly, lack of confidence in the vaccine effectiveness, the fear of being a “guinea pig,” and fears related to unethical vaccine and medical practices towards racial and ethnic groups in the past.

Healthcare professionals are trusted influencers in their communities and as such need scientifically accurate information about COVID-19 vaccines in order to build trust and increase vaccination rates. In turn, healthcare professionals may become confident advocates in the community for vaccination.

The expert presenter for this event is Dr. Noah Ivers, a practicing family physician and clinician-scientist at Women’s College Hospital and the University of Toronto. Supported by a Canada Research Chair in Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice, Ivers runs a large program of applied research, combining expertise in both data science and behavioral science to understand determinants of behavior, and to implement and rigorously evaluate interventions that improve quality of care and patient outcomes. Since late 2020, he has been focusing on supporting primary care aspects of the vaccine rollout through roles in policy tables and by co-leading the national initiative known as 19toZero. The toolkit Dr. Ivers co-authored—Building Vaccine Confidence, Acceptance, and Advocacy among Health Care Workers—may be accessed here.

Join THA for this event, as we discuss some of the main drivers for improvement in COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

Learning objectives:

• At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to:
• Discuss reasons for vaccine hesitancy among health care professionals as well as in the general population.
• Describe best practices for communicating with others about vaccine hesitancy.
• Describe methods for identifying and training healthcare professionals to become local influencers for vaccine acceptance in the community.