Background: Experiencing the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic, high vaccination coverage by a safe and effective vaccine globally would be a great achievement. Acceptance of vaccination by nursing students is an important issue as they play a decisive role as future professionals in educating patients, counselling, and guiding them to the right clinical decision.
Objectives: To explore the intention of nursing students to get vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2 infection and the factors acting either as motivators or as barriers towards vaccination.
Design: A multicenter cross-sectional design.
Participants: In total 2249 undergraduate nursing students participated.
Methods: The study was conducted in 7 universities in participating countries (Greece, Albania, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, and Kosovo) through a web survey. Data was collected during December 2020-January 2021 in all countries.
Results: Forty three point 8% of students agreed to accept a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, while the acceptance was higher among Italian students. The factors for intention to get vaccinated were male gender (p = 0.008), no working experience in healthcare facilities during the pandemic (p = 0.001), vaccination for influenza in 2019 and 2020 (p < 0.001), trust in doctors (p < 0.001), governments and experts (p = 0.012), high level of knowledge (p < 0.001) and fear of COVID-19 (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Understanding of factors that influence students' decision to accept COVID-19 vaccination could increase the acceptance rate contributing to a management of the pandemic.
Keywords: COVID-19; Factors; Intention; Nursing students; Vaccination.
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