Vaccination is an evidenced-based way to prevent certain diseases from manifesting themselves. Unfortunately, the vaccination rate in some diseases and target groups is too low due to different reasons like a lack of general awareness, priorities (sick vs not sick), convenience for patients, accessibility to healthcare and lack of knowledge in HCP.
Pharmacists can play a key role to increase vaccination rate and there are numerous proven examples that pharmacist-led initiatives have this impact. This can be done in two ways:
- Advocacy initiatives
- Being the vaccinator
Advocacy initiatives
Advocacy initiatives in vaccination means that pharmacists address vaccination through campaigning, both on a general level (TV commercial, radio spot, printed press…), as well as in pharmacy itself. This can be done through pop-ups, but sometimes a simple leaflet and a little word from the pharmacist can convince people to get vaccinated.
Being the vaccinator
Pharmacists, vaccinator? Yes, it’s already possible in thirteen countries (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, UK, USA) and propably France will follow. Depending on national legislation, pharmacist have different allowance to vaccinate, depending on the vaccin (eg flu vs yellow fever).