Impact assessment of an educational course on vaccinations in a population of medical students
pdf

Keywords

vaccine
education
students
Moodle

Abstract

The inadequate formation and knowledge about vaccinations of healthcare workers, including doctors, has certainly contributed to the spread of the vaccine hesitancy in recent years. Therefore, it is essential to improve the level of knowledge of future doctors so that they can deal with any hesitation within the population in order to increase the vaccination coverage. The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of a course about vaccination on the knowledge of medical students.

In order to evaluate the efficacy of a certain lecture about vaccinations on medical students, they were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire before and after the seminar. The two questionnaires contained the same 10 questions regarding knowledge and attitudes about vaccines. Only the students who had attended the lecture were allowed to complete the post-lecture questionnaire. The students could fulfil the questionnaires through the learning management system (LMS) called ‘Moodle’. A descriptive statistical analysis of the data collected through the comparative evaluation of the answers before and after the seminar was performed.

The seminar aroused much interest among the students: 100 of them completed the pre-lecture questionnaire and 81 of them completed the post-lecture questionnaire. The results show a positive impact of the seminar, especially about some specific themes: knowledge of the students on the indication of the MPR vaccine strongly improved after the seminar, the number of students who would recommend vaccination for pertussis and influenza during pregnancy increased by 37% and 19% respectively after the seminar, and those aware of the need for Herpes Zoster vaccination over the age of 65 increased by 22%.

For future doctors, a thorough knowledge about vaccinations is increasingly required in order to deal with vaccine hesitancy. It is, therefore, important for them to get the opportunity to develop a mastery over these topics. An extracurricular seminar about vaccines, provided in the second half of the course of study, can have a highly positive impact and could stimulate the future healthcare personnel to improve their knowledge on vaccination.

https://doi.org/10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2019.60.3.1201
pdf

References

Dubé E, Gagnon D, Ouakki M, et al. Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada: Results of a Consultation Study by the Canadian Immunization Research Network. Moore AC, ed. PLoS ONE. 2016;11(6):e0156118. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156118.

Wilson K, Keelan J. Social Media and the Empowering of Opponents of Medical Technologies: The Case of Anti-Vaccinationism. Eysenbach G, ed. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2013;15(5):e103. doi:10.2196/jmir.2409.

Rozbroj T, Lyons A, Lucke J. Psychosocial and demographic characteristics relating to vaccine attitude in Australia. Patient Educ. Couns. 2018 Aug 23. pii: S0738-3991(18)30600-1. Doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2018.08.027.

Rath B, Muhlhans S, Gaedicke G. Teaching vaccine safety communication to medical students and health professionals. Curr Drug Saf. 2015;10:23–26.

Afonso N, Kavanagh M, Swanberg S. Improvement in attitudes toward influenza vaccination in medical students following an integrated curricular intervention. Vaccine. 2014;32(4):502–506. 16. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.11.043. Epub 2013 Nov 21.

Marotta C, Raia DD, Ventura G, et al. Improvement in vaccination knowledge among health students following an integrated extra curricular intervention, an explorative study in the University of Palermo. Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. 2017;58(2):E93-E98.

Giambi C, Fabiani M, D’Ancona F, Ferrara L, Fiacchini D, Gallo T, Martinelli D, Pascucci MG, Prato R, Filia A, Bella A, Del Manso M, Rizzo C, Rota MC: Parental vaccine hesitancy in Ital. Results from a national survey. Vaccine 2018, 36: 779–787.

Latella LE, McAuley RJ, Rabinowitz M. Beliefs about Vaccinations: Comparing a Sample from a Medical School to That from the General Population. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018;15(4):620. Published 2018 Mar 28. doi:10.3390/ijerph15040620

Monteiro DLM, Brollo LCS, Souza TP, et al. Knowledge on the HPV vaccine among university students. Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 2018;60:e46.

Costantino C, Mazzucco W, Azzolini E, Baldini C, Bergomi M, Biafiore AD, Bianco M, Borsari L, Cacciari P, Cadeddu C, et al. Influenza vaccination coverage among medical residents: An Italian multicenter survey. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2014;10(5):1204–1210. doi: 10.4161/hv.28081. Epub 2014 Mar 6.

Fortunato F, Tafuri S, Cozza V, Martinelli D, Prato R. Low vaccination coverage among italian healthcare workers in 2013. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2015; 11(1):133-9; PMID: 25483526; https://doi.org/10.4161/hv.34415

Lehmann Birthe A, Ruiter Robert AC, Wicker S, Chapman G, Kok G. Medical students' attitude towards influenza vaccination. BMC Infectious Diseases 2015; 15:185; PMID: 25884906; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-015-0929-5

Mena G, Llupià A, García-Basteiro AL, Sequera VG, Aldea M, Bayas JM, Trilla A. Educating on professional habits: attitudes of medical students towards diverse strategies for promoting influenza vaccination and factors associated with the intention to get vaccinated. BMC Med Educ. 2013;13:99–99.doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-13-99.

Wicker S, Rebenau H F, von Gierke L, François G, Hambach R, De Schryver A. Hepatitis B and influenza vaccines: Important occupational vaccines differently perceived among medical students. Vaccine 2013; 31:5111-17; PMID: 24016807; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2013.08.070

Gallone MS, Gallone MF, Cappelli MG, et al. Medical students’ attitude toward influenza vaccination: Results of a survey in the University of Bari (Italy). Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. 2017;13(8):1937-1941. doi:10.1080/21645515.2017.1320462.

Costantino C, Amodio E, Calamusa G, Vitale F, Mazzucco W. Could university training and a proactive attitude of coworkers be associated with influenza vaccination compliance? A multicentre survey among Italian medical residents. BMC Med Educ 2016; 16:38; PMID: 26830337; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-016-0558-8

Gregori V, Franchino G, Marcantoni C, Simone B, Costantino C. Logistic regression of attitudes and coverage for influenza vaccination among Italian Public Health medical residents. J Prev Med Hyg. 2014;55(4):152–157.

Vaccine Education of Medical Students: A Nationwide Cross-sectional Survey

Lambert PH, Podda A. Education in Vaccinology: An Important Tool for Strengthening Global Health. Front Immunol. 2018;9:1134. Published 2018 May 24. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2018.01134