A team of social scientists from the University of Nottingham are launching an online tool to help healthcare professionals have better conversations with parents who may be hesitant to have their children vaccinated.
Funded by the European Union, the tool has been created as part of an €2.9 million international research project called VAX-TRUST.
Researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences collected data from healthcare professionals and from parents of pre-school children living in the East Midlands who may be hesitant about vaccination.
Findings were then used to create an online tool called a Reusable Learning Object (RLO), developed in conjunction with the Health and E-Learning Media (HELM) team at the University of Nottingham.
The new tool allows the user to listen to an audio-clip of three different parents, and then work through some short tasks to help them explore the varied factors behind vaccine hesitancy, using their own professional experiences. The tool then includes some key learning points, based on findings from the VAX-TRUST project, and from existing social science research into vaccine hesitancy.
The aim of VAX-TRUST is to improve awareness of the complex social and sociological underpinnings of vaccine hesitancy. By providing a dedicated opportunity within this RLO for reflection on hesitancy, we hope that healthcare professionals will feel more equipped for engaging in conversations about vaccines."
Pru Hobson-West, Professor of Science, Medicine and Society, said: 'Vaccination is a complex and sensitive topic for some, and relates to big questions including trust in science and medicine. We hope that busy doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals will find the online tool useful, as a starting point for thinking through their own experiences of vaccination'.
The resource is free and can be accessed by healthcare professionals online here. Users are encouraged to leave feedback to help with the development of future resources.
