FRONTLINE NURSES’ INTENTION TO RECEIVE A COVID-19 VACCINE BOOSTER: DOES AN EFFECTIVE ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION RELATIONSHIP MATTERS

• Published in: International journal of infectious diseases 2023-08, Vol.134, p.S4
• Main Authors: Wong, E.L.-Y., Cheung, A.W.-L., Wong, A.Y.-K., Sun, T.K.-S., Yam, C.H.-K., Miao, H.-Y., Wong, M.C.-Y., Yeoh, E.-K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1201-9712
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2023.05.027

Intro: As the COVID-19 pandemic remains a challenge worldwide, it is still critical to provide a protective environment in healthcare settings. Receiving booster of COVID-19 vaccines seems providing a good degree of protection to frontline healthcare workers against the coronavirus. However, many uncertainties on booster remain; hence increasing in vaccine hesitancy. Our study aimed to explore nurses’ willingness to receive a third COVID-19 vaccine booster and whether an effective organisational communication relationship play an important role. Methods: Nurses in public and private sectors were invited to participate in a self-administrated cross-sectional questionnaire survey between January and March 2022 in Hong Kong (HK). Nurses’ COVID-19 vaccination intention, organisational communication and social demographics were obtained. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to explore the relationship between nurses agreed in organisational communication with the management on 5-domins: 1) understanding staff's difficulties faced (DI), 2) sufficient communication (SC), 3) effectively reflect difficulties to management (RE), 4) considering reported opinions for improvement (OP) and 5) adequate support for staff (SU) and COVID-19 vaccine booster willingness which was adjusted by the collected social demographics. Findings: A total of 1,014 nurses participated in the survey and 742 (73.2%) were frontline workers in healthcare settings. Only 731 (98.5%) received 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccines which were included in the analysis. Among of them, 633 (86.8%) were female and 501 (70.1%) worked in public sectors. There were significant positive associations between all domains of organisational communications and vaccine booster willingness (DI: OR = 2.878; 95% CI: 1.760-4.706; SC: OR = 2.468; 95% CI: 1.546-3.939; RE: OR = 2.399; 95% CI: 1.489-3.865; OP: OR = 2.718; 95% CI: 1.653-4.470; and SU: OR = 1.619; 95% CI: 1.006-2.605) with (p