Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
7TH INTERNATIONAL CURRENT ISSUES CONGRESS ON MEDICINE, NURSING, MIDWIFERY, HEALTH SCIENCES, Sakarya, Türkiye, 27 - 29 Mayıs 2025, ss.132-133, (Özet Bildiri)
Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized that, informed consent must be obtained for vaccination practices, even in cases where vaccination is mandatory. For consent to be valid, individuals must be informed, comprehend the provided information, give consent voluntarily, and possess decision-making capacity. It has been suggested that providing reliable information about vaccines can reduce vaccine hesitancy and opposition. Ensuring valid informed consent from parents is crucial in this regard and can only be achieved through healthcare professionals. Autonomy can be a significant issue in vaccination practices, as parental autonomy may conflict with the child's wellbeing. In such cases, parental autonomy, the child's welfare, and public health should be safeguarded in the best possible manner. Although achieving this balance is challenging, it is of critical importance.
Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the opinions and practices of healthcare professionals regarding informed consent for childhood vaccinations.
Methods: The study was conducted with nurses, physicians, and midwives working in family medicine in one of the central districts of a province in Turkey. No sampling method was employed; instead, all healthcare professionals who voluntarily agreed to participate were included in the study. Data were collected using a sociodemographic characteristics form and an informed consent in vaccination questionnaire.
Results: Among the participants, 78.8% considered obtaining informed consent necessary for vaccination, 86.5% reported providing verbal information, and 66.5% stated that they allocated sufficient time for verbal communication. Healthcare professionals with 20 years or less of work experience (75.5%) were less likely to agree that children should be informed and involved in the decision-making process regarding vaccination (p = 0.045). Having a good level of ethical knowledge and not feeling the need for further ethical training positively influenced healthcare professionals’ likelihood of providing verbal information and dedicating sufficient time to it (p=0.003, p=0.040).
Conclusion: The findings suggest that participants generally hold positive views and practices regarding informed consent in vaccination. However, some participants exhibited gaps in knowledge concerning the involvement of children in the informed consent process and the importance of avoiding coercion in cases where individuals refuse vaccination. It may be recommended that healthcare professionals be trained on informed consent for vaccination at regular intervals.
Keyword: Vaccines, Health knowledge, Informed consent, Immunization, Health personnel