title: Examining the role of a decision aid in reducing decisional conflict amongst hospital healthcare workers towards receiving the influenza vaccine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Currently the uptake of the influenza vaccine amongst Australian hospital staff remains low. While some staff members choose not to receive the vaccine, others may feel decisional conflict around whether to receive the vaccine or not. Having access to information that is personalized to the staff members' concerns may alleviate this conflict. Our study aimed to explore the attitudes of hospital staff towards an online decision aid (DA), which focuses on influenza and the vaccine. We were also interested to examine whether they accepted the new tool and whether they had any suggestions for improvements.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-one semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a range of hospital staff from two major public hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia in 2013. Emails and posters were used to inform staff members about the study. Thematic analysis was performed to explore the attitudes of hospital staff towards the DA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our participants were well aware of the time/location of the staff vaccination clinics, however very few reported attending or receiving any educational material about the disease or the vaccine. Amongst those who did receive material, they felt that the messages were "dumbed down". There was a mostly positive response to the DA from participants, however they felt that unless it was included as part of mandatory training or orientation, it would be difficult to get staff to use the tool.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Previous studies have established that education is an important component of an influenza vaccination program. We believe that the decision aid offers an alternative approach to delivering balanced information to staff members, which may reduce workload burdens on administrators and drive up rates.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. h.seale@unsw.edu.au.
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seale
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Rajneesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.affiliation: Immunisation Services, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Kerryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lajoie
authors.affiliation: Planning and Population Health, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.affiliation: Centre for Hospital Epidemiology and Staff Services, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gallard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D005260:Female; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009517:New South Wales; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D014611:Vaccination; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D007252:Influenza Vaccines