Pharmacist and pharmacy intern perceptions of adolescent vaccination administration

To characterize pharmacists' and pharmacy interns' perceptions of administering adolescent vaccinations. Secondary objectives were to model the association between 1) perceptions and respondent demographic information and 2) pre- and post-training survey responses.

A 12-item survey, on the basis of the Theory of Self-Perception, was used to collect respondents' perceptions of adolescent vaccination administration retrospectively before and after pharmacist and pharmacy intern completion of Online training. The training reviewed Center for Disease Control and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice recommendations for vaccination schedules, vaccine administration, managing adverse reactions, finding vaccine-related information, the importance of vaccinating, and dispelling common misconceptions.

Pharmacists and pharmacy interns representing 114 Indiana community pharmacy locations within a national supermarket chain were eligible to complete an Online survey between March and April 2019.

Descriptive statistics were used to characterize pharmacists' and pharmacy interns' perceptions of adolescent vaccination administration. A multivariable regression analysis was used to determine the association between perceptions and respondent demographic information. Differences in perceptions before and after the training module were evaluated using paired t tests.

Of the 293 eligible pharmacists and pharmacy interns, 138 (47.1%) completed the survey and 124 (42.3%) responses were included for analysis. Pharmacists and pharmacy interns had positive perceptions of adolescent vaccination administration. There was a negative relationship between the number of years that a pharmacist had been in practice and their baseline perceptions of adolescent vaccination administration (P = 0.02). There was a statistically significant increase in perceptions following completion of the training module (P < 0.001).

Pharmacists and pharmacy interns, specifically those who have been in practice for few years, had positive perceptions about adolescent vaccination administration but their perceptions were strengthened with additional training. Further research is needed to determine the relationship between additional training and vaccination rates.