About half of eligible staff at New York City-based Harlem Hospital have received a COVID-19 vaccine, reflecting wariness in the Black community and prompting conversations about how leaders can acknowledge these fears while still encouraging vaccination, reports The New York Times.
Harlem Hospital, also branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is known for providing healthcare to the Black community and had the lowest staff COVID-19 vaccination rate among New York City hospitals at one point. As of mid-March, the hospital had a 51 percent staff vaccination rate, putting it in the middle of the 11 hospitals in the city's public system.
Vaccine hesitancy at Harlem Hospital, where a majority of the staff is Black, reflects broader trends across the nation, administrators said.
Six key takeaways for hospital leaders, per the Times:
1. At Harlem Hospital and across the U.S., confidence in COVID-19 vaccines is rising among Black Americans. Though initially more skeptical, Black Americans are now about as willing to get vaccinated as their white counterparts, and politics is emerging as a greater determinant of willingness, recent polls show.
2. Harlem Hospital's low vaccination rate wasn't surprising to leaders. A poll in late 2020 showed that only 30 percent of hospital employees were willing to be vaccinated, said Eboné Carrington, the hospital's CEO. Black staff cited concern tied to the legacy of medical injustices and general skepticism of a vaccine developed quickly, under a presidential administration they didn't trust. "The staff reflects a population of people who traditionally are reluctant to vaccinate, and not just hesitant, but rightfully fearful, at having been wronged," Ms. Carrington said.
3. Mitchell Katz, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, noted the lack of long-term studies about the vaccines, along with the negative experiences many Black and brown Americans have had with healthcare providers. Dr. Katz said he was going to be patient and focus on personal outreach, such as one-on-one conversations, to boost vaccination rates.
4. "I think that the history of medical experimentation on Black people plays a role in some of the decision-making," said Keisha Wisdom, BSN, RN, nursing chief at Harlem Hospital. "It is real, and it is something we have to talk about. And then find a way to continue that dialogue."
5. Some nurses said they didn't feel an urgency to get the vaccine because they already had COVID-19, Ms. Wisdom said, adding that some staff felt more secure now that there weren't personal protective equipment shortages.
6. Jasmine Travers, PhD, RN, assistant professor at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University, said that empathizing with staff reluctance is good, but not enough. "We should not just chalk up a refusal to that person's own wishes; we also need to look into ourselves and understand how we are approaching it. We can't tiptoe around the subject," Dr. Travers said. "It's one thing to want to be respectful, but we have to interrogate people around how we can better support them. What is the work that needs to be done?"