Promotion of Influenza Vaccination in Healthcare Workers During the Recruitment Visit

Overview

The investigators will compare two groups, an intervention group with a control group. Each employee of the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) and the University Medical Policlinic of Lausanne (PMU) who will do his recruitment visit at the occupational medicine unit of the CHUV between 04/29/16 (end of previous influenza epidemic) and 31/10/16 (the day before the start of the next influenza vaccination campaign) and exert a function in regular contact with patients will be eligible. Depending on his employee number (assigned by the human resources administration, independent of any parameter), he will be placed in the intervention group G1 (odd number) or in the control group G2 (even number). The information concerning the distribution of these two groups will be noted in the computerized medical records of the employee at the occupational medicine unit (Medipho4D software, secured database). Thereafter, the employee will be received by the nurse of the he occupational medicine unit for a recruitment visit according to the usual process. The nurse will perform the study intervention in addition to the usual procedure if it is stipulated ''intervention group'' on the employee's record in the database or only perform the usual steps if it is stipulated ''control group''. At the beginning of the next influenza vaccination campaign (mid-November 2016), employees in the intervention group will receive a letter reminding then about the intervention given during the recruitment visit and inviting them to get vaccinated. During the next influenza vaccination campaign (11.01.16) and until the end of the influenza epidemic that will follow (April 2017), each employee will have the opportunity to be vaccinated at the different vaccination stalls set up by the occupational medicine unit. For each employee vaccinated, the date of vaccination and vaccine name is entered in the electronic medical records of the occupational medicine unit (Medipho4D software) by a nurse or a secretary of the unit. At the end of the human influenza epidemic (April 2017), the data will be extracted from the database (Medipho4D software) and anonymized by an individual not implicated in the study. Data from two groups will be analyzed and compared to assess whether the intervention conducted among newly hired employees promotes influenza vaccination.