Perception and Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccination among Nurses Working in Selected Primary Healthcare Facilities in Ethiope East Local Government Area, Delta State

Abstract

Background: Knowing that social distancing and quarantine slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus and flatten the epidemic curve; it may not be sufficient to completely halt the spread of COVID-19, herd immunity gained by infection or vaccination will need to be well established within the population. However, the availability of COVID-19 vaccines may not translate into its uptake.
 Aim: Thus, the researcher explored the perception and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among 200 Nurses working in selected primary healthcare facilities in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State.
 Method: Purposeful sampling was used to access 200 Nurses, the data was collected using a closed-ended questionnaire and analysed electronically with a descriptive statistics package on SPSS version 25.0. 
 Results: Findings revealed that the majority (60% ) of nurses have a good perception towards COVID-19 vaccination and that a large majority (62%) will readily accept the uptake. Factors influencing the uptake include; the safety of a vaccine developed in an emergency, during an epidemic cannot be considered guaranteed, trust in the Ministry of Health and National to ensure that vaccines are safe, trust in science to develop safe effective new vaccines, trust in the authorities in the fight against COVID-19, the perception of not to be at considerable risk of developing complications and having had the COVID-19 disease.
 Conclusion: Findings revealed that the majority of nurses have a good perception towards COVID-19 vaccination while only a few had a poor perception, while one-third of the participants would reject COVID-19 vaccination, two third would readily accept the uptake.