Womens' experience of being offered influenza vaccination in pregnancy

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Exploring womens' experience of being offered the seasonal influenza vaccination in pregnancy by their midwife. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach

• IRAS ID

  181709

• Contact name

  Suzanne Hardacre

• Contact email

  suzanne.hardacre@wales.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Cardiff University

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  16/NW/0312, Northwest-Lancaster

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 7 months, 0 days

• Research summary

  Pregnant women are at increased risk of the influenza virus (World Health Organisation (WHO) 2010), being 4-5 times more likely to develop severe disease than non-pregnant women. Uptake of immunisation by pregnant women in Wales is 43.7% which falls short of the target set by the Chief Medical Officer for Wales (2013) that 75% of all pregnant women should receive the vaccination (Welsh Government 2013).
  Midwives play a vital role in leading the public health agenda (Dept of Health 2010). National uptake rates for pregnant women demonstrate that current approaches to addressing this issue appear to be ineffective.
  Study Aim - To explore pregnant womens’ experience of being offered the seasonal influenza vaccination by their midwife
  Study Design – A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study
  Participants – Purposive sampling of pregnant women, with capacity to give informed consent with a viable pregnancy from 24 completed weeks within a University Health Board in South East Wales. Purposive sampling of pregnant women, who have capacity to give informed consent with a viable pregnancy from 24 completed weeks within a University Health Board in South East Wales. Although the researcher is a midwife, she is not employed by the Health Board in which the study is to be undertaken, and therefore not part of the direct clinical care team and will not be providing any direct clinical care to potential participants. The researcher will personally attend community antenatal out-patient clinics in order to identify potential participants. The researcher will directly approach participants to inform them of the study and ask for their consideration to participate. In her absence, the researcher will request support from the lead midwives within the antenatal clinics in giving out participant information in relation to the study as approved by the Head of Midwifery within the Health Board in which the study is to take place.. Included within the criteria are women who are consultant led with or without high risk factors such as diabetes or hypertension. Women who are low risk and receiving midwifery led care will also be included in the study. Criteria for exclusion will be any pregnant woman who is a hospital antenatal patient at the time of recruitment. . Exclusion for criteria will also be women whose first language is not English due to no financial resource for interpretation services; however, as the study is being carried out in a Welsh University Health Board, in order to satisfy the requirements of the Welsh Language (Wales Measures) 2011 an interpreter will be made available for those participants who wish to conduct their interviews in Welsh. Any interview conducted in Welsh will also be transcribed in Welsh. Participants will be expected to undertake one interview with the researcher

  Study outcomes and impact:-
  • Demonstrate whether womens' experience of being offered the vaccination by their midwife influences their decision making
  • Determine whether the approach taken by community midwives contribute to the uptake of vaccination for pregnant women
  • Support managers in increasing awareness through education and training.
  • Use the findings of the study to inform local and national policy and support preparation for future seasonal influenza

• REC name

  North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  16/NW/0312

• Date of REC Opinion

  10 May 2016

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion