Background: Vaccination represents one of the most effective means of preventing infections for the population\nand for the public health in general. Recently there has been a decline in vaccinations, also among healthcare\nworkers (HCWs). The aim of the study is to detect the knowledge, skills, attitudes and barriers of HCWs regarding\nvaccinations in a tertiary childrenâ??s hospital in order to support clinical management in immunisation practices.\nMethods: An observational study was conducted on 255 subjects over a period of 8 months. The 31-item\nquestionnaire considered profession, level of instruction and different ages. It included questions taken from a\nquestionnaire used for a Canadian research and one used by the Bellinzona hospital. A 4-point Likert scale and\nclosed-ended questions were used. A confidence interval of 95%, p value less than equal to 0.05, Chi-square, ANOVA and the\nKruskal-Wallis test were considered.\nResults: In the last 5 years less than one third of the sample were vaccinated against flu. 77.8% (n.130) of nurses\nand 45.8% (n.19) of doctors were not vaccinated (p < 0.0001).\nAs for risk perception, 51.5% of nurses and 90.6% of doctors believe that their risk of contracting influenza is greater\nthan that of the general population.\nIn relation to the injection site, in all the age ranges there was a high level of knowledge except for those aged\nover 61 who responded incorrectly. Doctors were more prepared (p < 0.0001).\n50% of the sample used internet only as a source of information for vaccines. Generally, scientific sources were\nused infrequently. The higher the education level, the more frequent the utilisation of trustworthy scientific\nresources and literature. (p = 0.0002).\nConclusions: In line with the attitude observed in recent years, nurses are not inclined to get vaccinated\nthemselves although they agree to having their children vaccinated. HCWs have a good level of knowledge about\nvaccines and immunisation practices.\nWith the nurses we found that the higher the education level, the greater the knowledge about vaccines which\nleads to the conclusion that low levels of adherence are not due to a lack of knowledge, but rather, to a low\nperception of risks. Hence the need to strengthen the vaccination strategies inside the companies.
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