Vaccine literacy and cultural competence training of Professional FOR health to improve the vaccination offer

Abstract Background It is essential that healthcare institutions have a high level of organizational vaccine literacy so that they can support Newly Arrived Migrants (NAM) to navigate, understand and make informed decisions on vaccinations in an effort to make uptake equitable. Developing training material for Professional-FOR-health (PfH) working with NAM, i.e. health and non-health workers, can improve the vaccination offer for NAM. Objectives A holistic training framework for PfH was designed to increase capacity building skills and cultural sensitivity of the healthcare system in promoting active immunization of NAMs. The blended training should cover four topics: “Vaccine Literacy”, “Cultural awareness/migrant sensitivity”, “Health promotion tools with community-based approach” and “Entitlement to vaccination for NAMs/NAMs profile”. As learners cannot be seen as mere recipients of notions, their needs, motivations, and experiences should be put right at the center of the training process. Therefore, a training guide and materials were shared to Consortium Countries to be adapted and implemented in their context. Training sessions were conducted in the summer of 2023. Results A total of 180 participants showed an average increase of 8.2% in correct answers from pre- to post-raining. Notably, 112 participants experienced more than a 10% increase in correct answers. Significant increases were observed across all topics, particularly in Vaccine Literacy (A1) and NAM Profile (A4), with increases of 52% and 74%. The training was evaluated positively with an overall index of 4.2 out of 5. All items analyzed from the satisfaction questionnaire yielded positive evaluations, with an average rating of 4 out of 5. Conclusions The evaluation underscores the effectiveness of training in meeting educational needs of participants. This type of training can be the groundwork for the changes needed to make the NAMs vaccination process more guaranteed and inclusive.