Major ArticleInfluenza vaccination attitudes and practices among US registered nurses
Section snippets
Study design
The study was a cross-sectional mailed survey of licensed RNs, fielded January-March 2006.
Sample
Because there is no national listing of registered nurses, we utilized a multi-state sampling strategy as a proxy. Of the 22 states for which mailing information for licensed RNs was available for research purposes at the time of the study, we chose 4 states (Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania) to reflect variation in geographic region and the ratio of employed RNs to state population (ranging from
Respondent data
Of the 2000 RNs in the mailing sample, 189 were excluded because mailing materials were returned as undeliverable. Surveys were returned by 1310 respondents for an overall response rate of 72%. Of the 1310 respondents, 293 were ineligible (eg, retired, no longer in clinical practice), leaving 1017 surveys available for analysis (67% eligible response rate). Table 1 presents characteristics of the 1017 eligible respondents.
Receipt of influenza vaccination
The majority of respondents (59%, n = 595) reported being vaccinated during
Discussion
This study of RNs in 4 diverse states confirms many aspects of, and adds additional context to, the findings from other, primarily small area studies that have looked specifically at the attitudes and practices of nurses in the United States related to influenza vaccination. The majority of responding RNs was vaccinated in the 2005-2006 influenza season, and vaccination rates were higher among respondents who are particularly targeted by the ACIP recommendation because of chronic conditions or
Conclusion
This study of RNs in 4 states confirms that concern about adverse reactions to influenza vaccine, coupled with questions about vaccine effectiveness, are strongly associated with nonvaccination. Serving a high-risk patient population and being “very aware” of the CDC's recommendation for influenza vaccination of HCP are associated both with increased likelihood of vaccination and with RNs' level of agreement on statements of KAB supportive of influenza vaccination. Future efforts to improve
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Supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.