Implementation of Vaccine+: A co-created intervention to improve vaccine confidence among long-term care and retirement home staff in Ontario

Summary

This project builds on the Wellness Hub study (www.wellness-hub.ca) which aimed to support Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes (LTCHs) and Retirement Homes (RHs) to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a 2-year period, our team co-created a virtual community of practice for 72 LTCH/RH through which we delivered educational resources, newsletters, training (e.g., vaccine champions course), and opportunities to problem solve and share lessons learned with peers. The information and resources focused on three areas of concern for LTCH/RH: infection prevention and control, staff well-being, and COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

In this post-pandemic recovery period, there continues to be a need to focus on vaccine knowledge and uptake among LTCH/RH staff. COVID-19 booster doses have steadily declined since the initial third dose (first booster). In addition, the uptake of Influenza immunizations in Ontario has been declining since 2020. This is worrisome given that in 2022-2023, Ontario saw the spread of respiratory viruses increase. For this reason, we sought and obtained funding to develop a program called Vaccine+, which will aim to expand our Wellness Hub work in this area.

Vaccine+ has three objectives:

1. Improve LTCH/RH staff knowledge of, and confidence in COVID-19 and Influenza vaccines;
2. Improve staff health literacy, particularly in understanding information related to vaccines, and;
3. Increase LTCH/RH leaders’ capacity to support their staff’s uptake of COVID-19 and Influenza vaccines.

Study recruitment materials

• Coming soon

Funded By

• Public Health Agency of Canada (The Immunization Partnership Fund)