Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccination Status and Influencing Factors among Research Assistant Physicians and SixthYear Medical Students at a Faculty of Medicine

Objective: Ensuring high vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers is crucial in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the COVID-19 vaccination status of research assistant doctors and term VI medical faculty students and explore the factors affecting their vaccination decisions. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 501 participants consisting of 149 semester VI medical students and 352 research assistant doctors at a medical faculty between May 2021 and June 2021. Research data was collected using a 47-question survey completed face-to-face or online. Results: Of the participants, 88.2% reported having received a double-dose COVID-19 vaccination. The most frequent reason for being vaccinated against COVID-19 was “acquiring immunity against the disease”. Upon examining the participants’ reasons for not being vaccinated against COVID-19, it was determined that the most common reason was a “lack of sufficient data concerning the efficacy and safety of vaccines”. Conclusion: The participants’ vaccine acceptance was affected by various factors, such as gender, marital status, flu vaccination status, history of adverse reactions to other vaccines, history of COVID-19 infection, fear of transmitting COVID-19 infection to their family, and whether they would recommend COVID-19 vaccination to their family, friends, and patients. It may be useful to consider these factors affecting vaccine acceptance and rejection when developing vaccination campaigns.