Mandatory Influenza Vaccinations for Healthcare Workers: A Hunter New England (HNE) Approach

Jillian Martinelli (Nurse Manager, Staff Health and Wellbeing Service)

Hunter New England LHD, Nursing & Midwifery Unit, James Fletcher Campus

For many years Staff Health Nurses provided free Influenza Vaccines to all HNE HCWs (23,000 staff) on a voluntary basis and for years the uptake remained at 48-51% despite varying promotional strategies. March 5^th, 2018, saw the introduction, by NSW Health, of Mandatory Influenza Vaccinations for all Category A High Risk HCWs by 1^st June each year. This was just 6 weeks prior to the scheduled commencement of HNE’s regular Influenza Vaccination Campaign (usually spans April – July).

This initiative came with several challenges that were made more difficult considering the geographical expanse of our LHD. Our 1^st challenge was identifying and recategorizing the Category A HCWs (15,000 staff) into the new Category A High-Risk category (5,000 staff). This came with the additional challenge of changing the documentation in our Staff Health database for vaccination reports. Our 2^nd challenge was funding. The regular funding was only sufficient for a limited supply of additional immunisers. The 3^rd challenge was recruiting sufficient immunisers to facilitate the June 1^st deadline for Cat A High-Risk staff (still an ongoing challenge). The final challenge was implementing a risk management strategy for those Category A High Risk HCWs who were unable or refused to have the vaccine.

Despite these initial challenges, HNE had a very successful campaign for the first year of implementation and further increased its uptake in subsequent years. 2018 saw 60% uptake for all staff and 77% for Cat A HR; 2019 saw 63% uptake for all staff and 85% for Cat A HR.