Promoting confidence and trust in COVID-19 vaccines is critical to achieving vaccine acceptance and uptake.
As a trusted source of information on vaccines, general practitioners, immunisation nurses and other health care professionals play an important role in delivering this information and driving vaccine acceptance and uptake. Effective communication strategies, including acknowledging and addressing questions about vaccines, and providing targeted information to help people make informed decisions, will positively impact vaccination uptake.
The Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre is excited to announce our latest resource The MVEC Conversation: Vaccine Confidence. This two-part series features vaccine communication experts A/Prof Margie Danchin and Dr Jessica Kaufman and is designed to equip you with the knowledge and practical skills required to confidently address vaccine questions in the community.
Part 1 – Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, and applying principles from social and behavioural science, our vaccine experts discuss findings from the COVID-19 Vaccine Preparedness Study. We explore people’s intention to vaccinate and delve into ways in which people can be supported to reach this decision.
Part 2 – We look at the importance of a being a Vaccine Champion and provide you with practical communication strategies to help build vaccine confidence and improve vaccine uptake.
To view the series, please login to the MVEC Education Portal.
Presenters
Dr Daryl Cheng
MBBS, MPH, FRACP Medical Lead, Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre
Dr Cheng is a general paediatrician who works at The Royal Children’s Hospital and Monash Children’s Hospital. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He has special interests in immunisation, education and health informatics.
A/Prof Margie Danchin
Group Leader, Vaccine Uptake Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
A/Prof Margie is a consultant paediatrician within the Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI). She is Group Leader, Vaccine acceptance, Uptake and Policy, at MCRI, and is an immunisation expert with over ten years of experience in vaccine research and clinical work, both in Australia and in resource poor settings. She has expertise in vaccine clinical trials, vaccine safety, program evaluation, health system strengthening and implementation research in low resource settings, social science and vaccine policy. Her research program is focused on improving vaccine confidence, demand and uptake of licensed vaccines in different settings and populations.
Dr Jessica Kaufman
Research Fellow, Vaccine Uptake Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Dr Jessica Kaufman is research fellow working with Dr Margie Danchin in the Vaccine Acceptance, Uptake and Policy Research Team at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
She has a background in communication studies, which she studied at Northwestern University in Chicago. Her PhD research, completed at La Trobe University, focused on improving the way communication strategies are used to promote vaccination. She is an experienced qualitative and mixed methods researcher.
Jessica is an editor and author with the Cochrane Consumers and Communication review group, which publishes systematic reviews on health communication and participation interventions.