Making influenza vaccination mandatory for health care workers: the views of NSW Health administrators and clinical leaders
Julie Leask A B D , Charles M. Helms C , Maria Y. Chow A , Spring C. Cooper Robbins A B and Peter B. McIntyre A BA National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead
B Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney
C 2008 Fulbright Senior Scholar, The University of Sydney
D Corresponding author. Email: JulieL3@chw.edu.au
NSW Public Health Bulletin 21(10) 243-247 https://doi.org/10.1071/NB10042
Published: 18 November 2010
Abstract
The challenges of maintaining high influenza vaccination rates in health care workers have focused worldwide attention on mandatory measures. In 2007, NSW Health issued a policy directive requiring health care workers to be screened/vaccinated for certain infectious diseases. Annual influenza vaccine continued to be recommended but not required. This paper describes the views of NSW Health administrators and clinical leaders about adding influenza vaccination to the requirements. Of 55 staff interviewed, 45 provided a direct response. Of these, 23 supported inclusion, 14 did not and eight were undecided. Analysis of interviews indicated that successfully adding influenza vaccination to the current policy directive would require four major issues to be addressed: (1) providing and communicating a solid evidence base supporting the policy directive; (2) addressing the concerns of staff about the vaccine; (3) ensuring staff understand the need to protect patients; and (4) addressing the logistical challenges of enforcing an annual vaccination.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the NSW Health Immunisation Branch for their support and assistance in the study, in particular Sue Campbell-Lloyd, Su Reid and Dennis Meijer. We would also like to thank all participants for their time and contribution to this study.
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