Using Best Practices to Address COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: The Case for the Motivational Interviewing Approach

Abstract

Future control of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is dependent on the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. Many factors have swayed the public's perception of this coronavirus and the new vaccinations, including misinformation, heightened emotions, and the divisive and tumultuous partisan climate. As such, vaccine hesitancy may be more prevalent for the COVID-19 vaccine than others. Healthcare workers are trusted sources of information and have the opportunity to influence an individual's choice to take the vaccine. For those who initially present as unwilling to be vaccinated, trying to persuade them with facts and scare tactics may cause more resistance. By using the communication approach of motivational interviewing, practitioners can support autonomy to reduce defensiveness, use a guiding style to elicit ambivalence and provide information, address personal agency to ensure that their patients understand that their efforts can reduce risk, and evoke a person's own argument for vaccination to decrease vaccine hesitancy.

Keywords: behavior change; health education; health promotion; immunization; patient education.