Response to COVID-19 vaccination: Psychological stress and intentions of nursing personnel in Taiwan

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has been officially declared over, the global community must remain prepared for future outbreaks. In this regard, understanding the factors associated with willingness to get vaccinated among healthcare workers–given their critical role in infection control–remains essential. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors associated with nursing personnel’s intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Using an online questionnaire survey from April to June 2022, 492 nurses (mean age = 34.4 years, SD = 13.4; 96.7% females) from different settings (including inpatient, outpatient, and ambulatory clinics) participated in the present study. With the use of SmartPLS 4.0, the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) results showed that intention to get vaccinated was negatively associated with fear of COVID-19 (standardized coefficient = −0.149; p <.01) and vaccine hesitancy (standardized coefficient = −0.168; p <.01) but positively associated with informational support (standardized coefficient = 0.416; p <.01). Those with a higher intention to get vaccinated were positively associated with higher levels of no regrets regarding having received the vaccination (standardized coefficient = 0.544; p <.01). Moreover, fear, informational support, and vaccine hesitancy together explained 28.5% of the variance in intention to get vaccinated. In turn, the intention to get vaccinated explained 30.1% of the variance in the feeling of no regrets regarding having received the vaccination. Based on the results, addressing fear of COVID-19 through educational interventions, strengthening support systems, and promoting positive vaccination intentions may collectively improve vaccination rates among healthcare workers.