The attitude of Dutch community pharmacists towards vaccination qualification and the willingness to vaccinate

ABSTRACT

Background: In the Netherlands, pharmacists are not qualified to vaccinate. KNMP would like to advocate for this qualification. In order to do so, it is important to know the attitude of Dutch community pharmacists towards vaccination qualifications, the willingness to be trained to vaccinate and towards a possible different scenario pharmacy-based vaccination by a nurse. Purpose(s) To assess the attitude of Dutch community pharmacists towards vaccination qualification of pharmacists, the willingness to be trained to vaccinate and the attitude towards pharmacy-based vaccination by a nurse. Method(s) We developed a questionnaire and spread it by email to all KNMP members. Result(s) Sisty-six percent (66%) of the responders were positive about vaccination qualification of pharmacists (17% neutral and 17% negative), and even 78% were willing to be trained to vaccinate (ten percent neutral and 12% negative). On the other hand, only 34% was positive about pharmacy-based vaccination by a nurse (27% neutral and 39% negative). 95% of the responders were community pharmacists, of which 12% were hospital-based community pharmacists, five percent were hospital pharmacists and five percent were other pharmacists. The total number of respondents was 60, that is a response rate of two percent. Conclusion(s) We have a positive impression of the attitude of Dutch community pharmacists towards vaccination qualification of pharmacists and the willingness to be trained to vaccinate. This is a much more popular scenario than vaccination by a nurse who could vaccinate in the pharmacy. Because the total response to the questionnaire was low, we cannot be sure whether this is representative of Dutch community pharmacists or not. We considered sending the questionnaire again after the COVID-19 crisis, to gain higher response.