Determining the reasons for nursing students for not accepting covid-19 vaccine: A qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Background: During the pandemic, nursing students continued their professional practice course face-to-face. Nursing students were included in the priority group in vaccination. There are hesitations about the COVID-19 vaccine against these important developments. Objectives: It is aimed to determine the reasons for nursing students who do not want to be vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: The universe of the study, which was designed in the type of descriptive phenomenology, which is one of the qualitative research methods, consists of 31 nursing students who took the last year professional practice course and did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine. When the data reached saturation, the interviews were terminated and 11 people formed the sample of the study. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with the unstructured interview form arranged according to the Health Belief Model. Themes were created by writing the recorded voice transcripts and making content analysis. Results: Six of the participants are women, and the median age is 22.0. Students did not receive seasonal flu vaccination. All of them actively use social media. Codes were made in line with the interviews, and 18 sub-themes and 6 main themes were determined. Not trusting the vaccine, side effects of the vaccine, thinking that one will not get sick, the vaccine is not native, getting information from current sources, taking personal protective measures are the main themes of this study. Conclusion: The focus of the students' decision not to vaccinate was determined as their negative attitudes towards vaccine trust. © 2023, Dokuz Eylul University. All rights reserved.