Long-term care providers’ goal of having 75% of workers vaccinated against COVID-19 before July could be in reach after a new survey revealed that only 24% of employees don’t plan on getting inoculated.
The survey, released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Washington Post, is the latest partnership that examines the attitudes of frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic. More than 1,300 healthcare workers, including nursing home, assisted living and home healthcare employees, were surveyed.
Overall, 50% of surveyed frontline workers at nursing homes and assisted living facilities have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and another 15% have scheduled or plan to receive the medication.
Just less than a quarter of nursing home and assisted living workers have no plans to get vaccinated, while 11% are undecided, surveyors found.
Top concerns about the vaccines included possible side effects, lack of trust in the government to ensure the vaccine is safe, and other concerns about it being too new, according to survey administrators.
The American Health Care Association and LeadingAge in late February set a goal of having 75% of all nursing home workers fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by June 30.
Since then, several surveys have indicated that workers have become more accepting of being vaccinated. Specifically, an OnShift survey last week found that long-term care staffers’ willingness to receive a COVID vaccine increased by 94% — although that still put the “intend to vaccinate” level at 62%, indicating the challenges still ahead.
“More than six in 10 are confident vaccines being used in the U.S. have been properly tested for safety and effectiveness (64% and 65%, respectively), but still more than one-third of frontline health care workers say they are not confident (36%),” KFF/WaPo researchers said.
