Page 45 - Preventing pertussis in early infancy - Visser

voluntary vaccination programme was found in all groups – HCWs and parents – it was particularly explicit among maternity assistants. Maternity assistants associated a compulsory programme with a loss of individual freedom. This was especially true for those HCWs whose employers had demanded them to get a vaccination quite forcefully during the influenza A H1N1 pandemic (on penalty of no longer being allowed to work), or who felt controlled by clients who phoned their employer to find out whether they were vaccinated. This was experienced as a violation of their privacy, and as disrespectful of their opinion. They expressed a strong feeling that their rights were then violated, and in case of future similar situations will have the tendency to not blindly trust a vaccination offer anymore. Making vaccination mandatory might therefore have a negative influence on future vaccination acceptance. Both the specific support for voluntary vaccination and the potential adverse effects of mandatory vaccination indicate a voluntary setting is the better alternative.
Table 1. Examples of the support for voluntary vaccination in focus group discussions and interviews with parents, maternity assistants, midwives and paediatric nurses
Focus group 3, midwives
What would you think of compulsory vaccination? I would not do it.
No, I would not do it either.
You cannot impose that on somebody.
Focus group 1, parent
You can never make this compulsory. No, if they do not want it (i.e. the vaccination, OV) themselves...... It is a personal responsibility that people should take.
Interview 1, paediatric nurses
Compulsory, no. (...) because it is important to decide about your own body. I think that’s it. Yes, even though it is done with the best intentions, but well, if you take away the choice from people they will say: it is my body into which you want to inject something.
Focus group 3, nurses
I think compulsion is very difficult. It is like if you don’t vaccinate yourself then you cannot work with children from 0 to 6 months. (...) I would not be in favour of that. I am not ready for that. (...) I think freedom of opinion is very important. This is a step too far for me.
Focus group 1, maternity assistants
(..) what I disliked was the letter (by the employer, OV)
That came across really coercive, like: you need to get that shot or otherwise you won’t be planned into the work schedule. It was about families who started to call to ask whether we were vaccinated. They could refuse us. I immediately thought: that will turn off our colleagues. I would never call a centre of maternity assistants to ask whether the maternity assistants were vaccinated or not. I would never have done that. So if there are people who do that, I don’t want to work there.
I thought it was important that our privacy was at play here.
I think it annoying and they don’t need to know everything (...)
Focus group 2, maternity assistants
A little social pressure, team consultation, that is all right. But (....) you should not force your opinion on others.
Not force your opinion, no.
We don’t like ‘have to’, but advice is acceptable.
Effort to make an informed and deliberate choice
Respondents in the focus group meetings and interviews experienced difficulties in making an informed and deliberate choice (examples are shown in Table 2). Some
Mandatory versus voluntay
Mandatory versus voluntary
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