The effect of nurses’ COVID-19 vaccination status on fear of COVID-19: A cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Aims

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of nurses' COVID-19 vaccination status on fear of COVID-19.

Methods

The research was conducted as a descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study. A personal information form and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale were used for data collection. Data were collected using an online questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA were used to evaluate the data.

Results

The pre-vaccine and post-vaccine COVID-19 fear levels of the nurses were moderate. It was found that nurses who were women, were older, had a longer working period, and had COVID-19 experienced significantly higher fear. The vaccination rate was found to be 52.8%. When vaccination status and COVID-19 fear levels were evaluated, it was determined that vaccinated nurses had a significantly higher mean pre-vaccine fear score (p < .05). It was observed that the mean COVID-19 fear score decreased significantly after vaccination.

Discussion

The findings of this study showed that vaccination has an effect on the fear of COVID-19, that vaccination is important and that studies in this area need to be increased.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• fear
• nurse
• vaccination
• public health nursing
• pandemic

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the nurses who took part in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Contributors: Ecem ÇİÇEK GÜMÜŞ: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Visualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing – Original draft preparation, Writing – review & editing. Hatice Serap KOÇAK: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Sakine BEYOĞLU: Data curation, Investigation.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Ecem Çiçek Gümüş

Ecem Çiçek Gümüş: The author works in the field of public health nursing and her areas of interest are prevention of chronic diseases, fight against infectious disease, disability and health promotion practices.

Hatice Serap Koçak

Hatice Serap Koçak: The author works in the field of public health nursing, and her areas of interest are chronic disease prevention, combating infectious disease, family planning and health promotion practices.

Sakine Beyoğlu

Sakine Beyoğlu: The author works in the field of public health nursing and her areas of interest are chronic disease prevention, organ transplantation and health literacy.