Parents' Readiness for Pharmacist-Led Vaccination Programs

Abstract

Vaccination is one of the most advancing forms in preventing diseases in our world today. Increasing the immunization coverage rate and decreasing any potential immunization errors makes parental decisions on immunization very important. Parents' awareness and beliefs about immunizations are the key factors that lead to their choices on vaccination. The study aims to identify the parents' readiness in terms of awareness, accessibility and cost for the pharmacist-led vaccination program. A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional design using purposive sampling on 112 parents aging 41-60 years old with children from 18 and above residing in Davao City, Philippines. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) and Pearson-Chi Square for the significant relationships. Results showed mostly female (82.1%) parent between the age of 41-50 years old (65.2%), college graduates (62.5%), with a monthly income between $219.19 - $876.68 (50.9%), and married (77.7%). Majority of the respondents were not sufficiently aware of the pharmacist-led vaccination programs (78.6%). Nevertheless, most of them put their confidence in the pharmacists (75.0%), believing that it will be safe to be vaccinated by an immunizing pharmacist (78.6%). However, respondents thought that it would be much more expensive for them to participate in a pharmacist-led vaccination (65.2%), but they are ready to spare a budget for it (57.1%). Most of the respondents indicated that majority of them have free access to pharmacies (72.3%), and they were available to get vaccinated during weekends and holidays (51.8%). There was an association (<0.05) between awareness to education and income; cost with age and civil status; accessibility with sex and education towards pharmacist-led vaccination programs. Therefore, Parents appear to be ready to accept pharmacists to lead a vaccination program as immunizers in the delivery of healthcare services especially in public health crisis.