A compliance study of the preventive inoculation rules, concerning the medical / nursing stuff of a Greek general hospital

Introduction: The significance of applying a full-inoculation program from health-care professionals leads to a substantial decrease in the morbidity rate of infectious diseases between patients and employees. The immunization guidelines of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for health-care professionals should most certainly be taken into consideration, in an attempt to develop and implement an inoculation protocol in all health services. Aim: The aim of the current study was to check and confirm the inoculation rates of health-care professionals at the General Hospital of Korinthos. Method: The current study is a descriptive, cohort study of correlation. The participants of the study were 213 health-care professionals in the General Hospital of Korinth. The data capturing were collected using an anonymous questionnaire, which was provided for the purpose of the present study, on the basis of the bibliographic references and the inoculation recommendations, of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The statystical analysis was conducted using the statystical program SPSS 13. The self-coherence reliability of the study was tested on the coefficient alfa (Cronbach’s a), which was equal to 0,71. Results: The participants who finally answered the questionnaire were 78 doctors and 42 nurses. Only 1,7% of all the participants mentioned that they had not been vaccinated against any of the five vaccines which are recommended by the ACIP, whereas 20,8% of them had been fully vaccinated. The vaccines with the higher frequency rate among health-care professionals’ inoculation, were Tetanus 60%, Hepatitis B 55,8% and Hepatitis A 15,7%. Men report that they have been vaccinated more frequently than women, with a higher difference of statistical significance concerning the tetanus inoculation. Moreover, doctors report that they are more often vaccinated, especially against Hepatitis B and Tetanus, than the nursing stuff. Conclusions: According to our findings there is a poor protection of the health-care professionals, as far as inoculation is concerned. The continuous training and broadening of the knowledge spectrum of all health-care professionals, will most certainly lead to a more systematic inoculation, aiming at the reduction of the infectious disease rate between doctors / nursing stuff and in-patients.

Keywords: health professionals’ inoculation, vaccines, immunization