Nursing and Midwifery Students' COVID-19 Vaccine Regrets and Future Vaccination Intentions: A Mixed Methods Study

Regret over COVID-19 vaccine decisions is a post-pandemic phenomenon that needs further research. This mixed-method research was conducted to examine nursing-midwifery students' COVID-19 vaccine decision regret and their intention to get vaccinated in the next pandemic. The research includes quantitative and qualitative research processes. In the first phase, a quantitative (cross-sectional) study was conducted, collecting data from 602 participants who met the inclusion criteria. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 participants. Data were collected using the Decision Regret Scale and semi-structured interview form. Data were analyzed using Student's t-test, one-way anova test, and inductive content analysis, and reported using Good Reporting of a Mixed Methods Study. In the study, it was determined that 96.3% of the participants had received the COVID-19 vaccine and 50.0% regretted getting vaccinated. As a result of the analysis of qualitative data, the following themes emerged that could reveal the reasons for vaccine regret; forced compliance, a strange pandemic, unknown effects, and vaccine hesitancy. Students' experiences in the COVID-19 pandemic have the potential to increase negative attitudes towards their vaccines.