P3.T385: Moving the Needle on Vaccine Hesitancy: Implementation of a Simulation Curriculum to Improve Pediatric Medical Education on Immunization Counseling

Purpose/Objectives: Vaccine Hesitancy is recognized among the World Health Organization’s top ten threats to global health. Vaccine hesitancy is encountered every day in pediatrics, even at our military treatment facilities. Despite the urgency and prevalence of this concern, medical school curriculums do not routinely teach students how to address vaccine hesitancy in clinical practice. Our military residency at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth is associated with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS). We routinely host medical students from USUHS during their pediatric clerkship. The objective of our project is to study the efficacy of a dedicated curriculum for medical students to learn evidence-based ways to combat vaccine hesitancy through simulation.

Design/Methods: As part of our curriculum, we have developed four vaccine hesitancy simulations that have been put into practice over the past year and a half with rotating third- and fourth-year medical students during their pediatrics clerkship. The simulated scenarios are based on real-life encounters in the pediatric outpatient setting – the refusal of MMR, influenza, COVID-19, and HPV vaccines, and the request for alternate vaccination schedules. Each scenario has accompanying learning points, including facts about vaccine research, ingredients, and suggested verbiage for providers that has been proven to reduce vaccine hesitancy. Our simulations occur during the first week of the pediatric clerkship in a group setting. The curriculum begins with a 10-minute lecture about vaccine hesitancy, and the remainder of the 1.5-hour session is dedicated to the 4 simulations, rotating between learners.

To assess the efficacy of our curriculum, we have developed three surveys that will be provided as a pre-simulation survey, post-simulation survey, and retention survey 6-weeks later. These surveys cover a variety of facets, such as confidence responding to a vaccine hesitant caregiver and knowledge about vaccines.

Results: Our vaccine hesitancy simulations have already reached over 70 learners. Our survey study has recently been IRB approved and we intend to begin collecting data in April 2024. Survey data will be compared for each individual participant and collectively within the group of learners to assess both knowledge acquisition as well as knowledge retention and implementation. We anticipate having preliminary data to present at the AAP conference in the Fall.

Conclusion/Discussion: The pediatrics clerkship offers a key opportunity to equip future healthcare providers with evidence-based strategies to combat vaccine hesitancy. Initial qualitative feedback following our vaccine hesitancy simulations has been positive, with students remarking that it gave them the tools, facts, and confidence to address hesitant caregivers. Ultimately, the survey data will help us evaluate the efficacy of our vaccine hesitancy curriculum and will be used to refine the curriculum to better equip medical students to combat vaccine hesitancy in their future clinical practice.