A Simulation Experience for Preparing Nurses to Address Refusal of Childhood Vaccines

Parents' refusal of childhood immunizations presents a challenge to the provision of care to children. Nurses should be prepared for having difficult conversations with vaccine-refusing families and for contributing to discussions with their colleagues regarding whether to continue to provide care to these families.

A novel high-fidelity ethics simulation experience was developed and implemented in the pediatrics course of a baccalaureate nursing program. The simulation experience involved a clinical scenario in which nurses encountered and addressed parental vaccine refusal and discussed options for addressing refusal with their physician colleagues.

Three themes emerged from analysis of the students' evaluations of the simulation experience. Students reported feeling better prepared for addressing vaccine hesitancy, having greater awareness of their own biases toward vaccine-refusing families, and becoming newly acquainted with their potential role in enforcing practices' dismissal policies for vaccine-refusing families.

Nurse educators should consider incorporating ethics simulation experiences into existing ethics instruction and clinical training. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(4):222-226.].