Published online Feb 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i4.821
Peer-review started: October 27, 2022
First decision: November 30, 2022
Revised: December 12, 2022
Accepted: January 16, 2023
Article in press: January 16, 2023
Published online: February 6, 2023
Patient characteristics can affect their medical care team practice and intervene in the shared decision-making process. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic posed new challenges to patient care, especially severe infections with high rates of deterioration and adverse outcomes. COVID-19 vaccines have proven highly efficacious in reducing the disease severity and as a result its burden. We, therefore, hypothesized that patient vaccine hesitancy would influence the hospital care team (HCT) perceptions.
Many studies focused on the attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines themselves and specifically on vaccine hesitancy for both patients and medical teams. However, it is still unknown whether patient vaccine hesitancy influences HCT perceptions.
To study the effect of patient vaccine hesitancy on HCT perceptions towards these patients’ characteristics and care.
We conducted a prospective study at 11 medical centers during the Delta variant surge using standardized questionnaires. Hospital physicians and nursing staff treating COVID-19 patients (n = 66) were recruited and completed a questionnaire, which included three validated tools to assess the effect of patient vaccine hesitancy. We analyzed the questionnaire results in all different items and evaluated their associations with patients’ characteristics.
Our data demonstrated that HCT experienced their relationship with vaccine-hesitant patients as more difficult, perceived them as responsible for their disease and as having a lower character. The relationship with unvaccinated patients was more difficult among HCTs with higher workplace burnout.
We concluded that patient vaccine hesitancy had a negative impact on how the HCT perceived patient character, their care and their responsibility for their disease.
Our results should raise awareness of the potentially harmful biases in medical practice and hopefully lead to the establishment of specific measures in designated COVID-19 departments to combat this issue. Early detection might prevent negative feelings from escalating and mitigate the feared consequence of harming patient care.