VACCINATION CONFIDENCE, PRACTICES AND RECOMMENDATION BEHAVIOUR OF HEALTHCARE PERSONNEL

Our attempt to write this book was based on our interest in promoting vaccination which is one of the most successful public health interventions so far. Healthcare workers are the pillars for the vaccination programmes as they are involved directly in prescribing vaccines, communicating with the recipients of the vaccines and being the recipients of some vaccines themselves form the role models for other people. Healthcare workers have the opportunity to talk to the people about vaccinations. However, how they talk and what they talk depends on the vaccination confidence of the healthcare workers. Sometimes the healthcare workers may themselves be hesitant towards some vaccines as was recently seen when the vaccines against the COVID-19 virus were introduced. Hesitancy among healthcare workers sends a negative message in the society about vaccines. And therefore it is important that any vaccine hesitancy among the healthcare workers be detected, addressed and done away with. This book is an attempt in this direction. It gives an overview of the importance of the vaccines, the challenges that come with the vaccinations, the understanding and importance of the vaccination confidence and practices of healthcare workers and the impact of the recommendation behaviour of the healthcare workers on the vaccination uptake by other people.