So far, 24% of health workers have been vaccinated and the plan is to vaccinate another 49%. The level of confidence in the safety of vaccines amongst health workers is high and amounts to 76%, shows the survey, conducted in January before the start of a nation-wide vaccination campaign.
Almost 9,000 doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, midwifes, dentists, psychologists, pharmacists and other medical personnel participated in the survey.
"It is interesting to note that 2 out of 10 respondents had contracted COVID-19. Just over half of the respondents (56%) believe they could get infected while almost as many (55%) consider COVID-19 to be a dangerous disease," a press release said.
Health workers were asked to evaluate, on a scale of 1 to 7, their stance regarding several psychological predictors that are crucial to deciding about getting vaccinated. People willing to be vaccinated have a tendency to consider vaccines to be safe, do not underestimate the danger of the disease, weigh the pros and cons less and have a greater level of collective responsibility.
The majority of health workers who have been vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19 have in the past five years also been vaccinated against the flu.
Health workers assessed the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine with a score of 5.4 on a scale of 1 to 7. They gave the same mark for the importance of analysing the risks and benefits of vaccination prior to making a decision.
There are 73,000 people employed in Croatia's health system.