COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Healthcare Workers: A Phenomenological Study of Skepticism

Despite the prioritizing the healthcare workers (HCWs) for COVID-19 in a systematized manner the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy was observed in them. HCWs are presumed to be pre-emptive in up-taking the vaccine due to their closest association and having reasonable background information. Hence, we intended to explore and investigate the phenomenology of skepticism and hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine among HCWs.

A sequential explanatory mixed methods study design incorporating a baseline cross-sectional survey followed by qualitative and semiquantitative text-mining approach was adopted in a tertiary care center in Madhya Pradesh, India. Six hundred seventy-nine HCWs for quantitative data and 30 HCWs for qualitative interviews were surveyed. After determining the quantum and baseline traits of hesitant HCWs, 30 participants were purposively selected for in-depth qualitative analysis based on grounded theory using a framework approach and consolidated from the psychological and philosophical plane of skepticism. This was complemented by a semiquantitative text-mining approach using mono/bigram analysis and network plotting.

Approximately one-fifth of participants (18%,122 out of 679) were initially, and one-tenth of initially hesitant (10 out of 122) were terminally hesitant. Hesitant and non-hesitant participants were similar except for comorbidity status. Five themes emerged namely individual, vaccine-related, social, system, and contextual after thematic consolidation. Words/phrases indicating individualistic desire to knowing more, internal conflicts, and conjecture were mined further. The network plot showed diversified expressions of participants.

There seems to be a requirement to prime HCWs by offering objective information beforehand and removing diffidence using a systematic approach addressing the psychology and prevalent partisan belief in similar circumstances in the future.