APhA survey: Pharmacists’ confidence in COVID-19 vaccines continues to grow

A nationwide survey of pharmacists, conducted by the American Pharmacists Association, has found that increasing percentages of pharmacists have been administered a COVID-19 vaccine, are more comfortable addressing vaccine hesitancy with patients, and are continuing to build necessary support staff at their practice location to safely offer a COVID-19 vaccine.

More than 9 in 10 pharmacists (92%) said they plan to or have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Of these, 80% said they had received one dose, 9% had received two doses, and 3% planned to get a vaccine as soon as they can.

This is the fourth survey APhA has conducted since September about pharmacists’ confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines. In its January 2021 survey, 51% reported they had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

In the March survey, an overwhelming percentage of pharmacists (97%) said they were comfortable addressing vaccine confidence and vaccine hesitancy concerns with their patients and other individuals. When asked about their readiness to administer a COVID-19 vaccine, 67% said they were already administering the COVID-19 vaccines, 18% said they would be able to administer it as soon as vaccines are available to them, and 9% were preparing to administer the vaccinations and would participate in future phases of the vaccine delivery program. Only 5% said they did not plan to participate in a vaccination program.

“I’m very proud of our profession,” said Scott Knoer, APhA executive vice president and CEO. “They have stepped forward to meet the challenges of the pandemic head-on, and performed a great service for the nation. More than 400,000 pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy interns have been trained for precisely this moment, and we’re ready to do the job.”

APhA conducted the survey of 435 pharmacists from March 20-27, 2021. The respondents are from every region of the nation, and work in a broad range of practice settings, with a majority of respondents practicing in community-based settings. The margin of error for this survey is plus or minus 4.7% at the 95% confidence level.

This survey was conducted as part of “Vaccine Confident,” which is funded in part by a collaborative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.