Vaccine hesitancy in Hispanic female registered nurses in the San Antonio area

The purpose of this study was to reveal experiences of vaccine hesitancy of Hispanic female registered nurses working in healthcare facilities in South Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stake’s case study design was chosen to provide a holistic, contextual view including interviews and artifacts that were meaningful to the participants. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit five participants who met the inclusion criteria. All participants were interviewed twice face to face, audio recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Demographic data was collected to describe the sample. The data were analyzed using Stake methodology and the framework of the SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy. Prominent findings across all cases included workplace distrust, lack of employer messaging, changing messaging about personal protective equipment, lack of information, the negative effect of vaccine mandates, a rapidly developed vaccine, and participants who had never previously been vaccine hesitant becoming-hesitant to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. These findings were examined through an ethical lens as well as in the context of structural empowerment and psychological empowerment theories. The participants’ environments were found to be lacking in structural and psychological empowerment, leading to a lack of agency in decision making about protecting themselves from a deadly virus that resulted in distrust in their workplace. When a COVID-19 vaccine was offered, the participants lacked confidence in their workplaces as well as the vaccine itself.