[Vaccination status among nurses in hospitals. Results of a cross sectional study at Harzklinikum Dorothea Christiane Erxleben Quedlinburg].

Background

Health care workers can be multiplicators for infectious diseases due to their patient contacts. Vaccinations are not mandatory in Germany but there are recommendations for people at higher risk such as health care workers. There is no representative data regarding vaccination status of health care workers in Germany. Aim: We examined vaccination status among nurses regarding diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, hepatitis A (HA) and hepatitis B (HB) as well as correlations between age, professional years, vaccination status and acceptance.

Methods

An anonymous cross sectional survey concerning health burden and health behavior including vaccination was conducted among health care workers. Statistical analysis using SPSS included descriptive analysis, subgroup specific differences of distribution were tested by chi2-tests.

Results

Regardless of age or professional years, 99 % of the nurses evaluated that vaccinations are at least “partly necessary”. Sufficient vaccination status was reported more often concerning tetanus (82 %) and HB (70 %) but less often regarding diphtheria (52 %), poliomyelitis (49 %), HA (43 %) and pertussis (42 %). With respect to some vaccinations, proportion of nurses not knowing their vaccination status was higher than 20 %.

Conclusions

Despite the high vaccination acceptance, vaccination status among participating nurses was not sufficient. Implementation of vaccination measures targeting health care workers should be strengthened to reach higher vaccination coverages to prevent vaccination preventable infectious diseases among health care workers and patients in hospitals.