Public health nurses' views on voluntary smallpox vaccination.

Between January and June 2003, voluntary smallpox vaccination of healthcare workers and mandatory vaccination of military personnel was an important public health topic. This paper discusses the attitudes of nurses from two county public health departments in an upper-Midwestern state who were asked to volunteer to take the smallpox vaccine and to prepare to assist in the operation of possible mass immunization clinics. The responses of these healthcare professionals are compared to those of physicians and the general public. The public health nurses in this sample were less likely to view smallpox as a potential biological weapon than was the general public or other healthcare workers studied previously.