Education Resources Affect Pharmacy Pneumococcal Vaccination Conversations
Pharmacist education can positively impact patient counseling around vaccinations in older adults.
Providing education interventions to pharmacists can affect the nature of conversations about pneumococcal vaccination in older adults, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.1
Although the Public Health Agency of Canada has a target vaccination rate of 80%, only 58% of Canadiens aged 65 years and older have been vaccinated for pneumococcal pneumonia.
Pharmacist education can positively impact patient counseling around vaccinations in older adults. | Image credit: C. Davids/peopleimages.com - stock.adobe.com
The researchers wanted to discover the reasons behind patients’ reluctance to get vaccinated. They sought to explore the conversations about the pneumococcal vaccine between pharmacists and patients.
Investigators randomly selected pharmacies to receive education packages, which were designed to increase knowledge, skills, and abilities for promoting pneumococcal vaccination. The educational toolkit included patient screening tips, a decision tree for patient eligibility, consent forms, a poster on vaccine safety, vaccine comparison table, frequently asked questions, and several documentation templates. Pharmacists watched a 1-hour video that gave them an overview of the study and all educational materials.
During the control stage, pharmacists provided usual care. The intervention stage occurred after the pharmacists received the educational packages. The researchers used weekly scorecards to assess pharmacist-patient conversations, including the number of conversations, the length of each conversation, and reasons for vaccine refusal. They used chi-squared tests to compare the time taken for conversations and patient-reported reasons for refusing the vaccine during the control and intervention stages.
The study included 656 pharmacist-patient conversations from 13 pharmacies across Alberta, Canada. Of these conversations, 271 occurred during the control stage, and 385 occurred during the intervention stage.
READ MORE: At Higher Risk, Vaccine Efficacy, Uptake Are Crucial for Older Adult Populations
After receiving the educational package, the duration of pharmacist-patient conversations that resulted in a vaccine decreased—65% of conversations during the control phase took less than 20 minutes compared with 88% during the intervention phase. Conversations that resulted in vaccine refusal remained about the same length between the control and interventional stages, with 70% and 76% lasting for less than 5 minutes, respectively.
During both phases of the study, the most common reason for vaccine refusal was “needing more time to think about the vaccine”—this accounted for 31% of all refusals during the control stage and 36% during the intervention stage. However, fewer patients cited “lack of time to receive it today” and “perceived lack of benefit” as the reason for refusing the vaccine during the intervention phase. More patients refused the vaccine due to “cost barriers” during the intervention stage compared with the control, and more patients “wanted to consult with family members.”
Patients’ reasons for refusal that did not significantly change between the control and intervention phases included “fear of adverse events,” “lack of perceived susceptibility,” and “wanting to consult with their family doctor.”
The researchers noted that their scorecards did not allow them to track pneumococcal vaccinations that occurred elsewhere or at a different time. Thus, they could not report accurately on how vaccination rates changed after pharmacist-patient conversations.
In a future study, the researchers will assess the most useful components of the educational toolkit, allowing them to refine the program.
READ MORE: Immunization Resource Center
