초록
Vaccines are products for immunization which can provoke antibodies by eliciting immune reponses without causing disease and have played an important role in preventing fatal and contagious diseases as well as H1N1 influenza. They are classified by two following categories; lived attenuated vaccine and killed vaccine and currently commonly using vaccines are BCG, diphtheria, tetanus, mumps, measles, rubella, polio, Haemophilus influenza type b, hepatitis B, influenza etc. All vaccines must be used correctly to reach optimal therapeutic goals and also informed well to patients to decrease potential problems. In order to do, pharmacists must have good knowledge of vaccines. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the necessity of vaccine education for pharmacists and develop a vaccine leaflet for patient counseling. We have performed a survey with questionnaire for a total of 176 pharmacists and nurses(hospital pharmacists, n=65; community pharmacists, n=50; hospital nurses, n=61) from January 27th to March 12th, 2010. The questionnaire includes items about vaccine education and counseling and 12 quizzes to evaluate responders' knowledge of vaccines. We used the SPSS(Version 12. for windows) program to analyze the data. In results, 94.9% of all responders said they had not been educated on vaccines. And only 1.1% of all responders said they know about vaccines enough to counsel patients. Pharmacists who have an experience recommending vaccines to other people are 21.7%. On the other hand, nurses who have an experience recommending vaccines to other people are 55.7%(p=0.000). The mean number of correct answers at the 12 quizzes are followings; hospital pharmacist, 8.1; community pharmacist, 6.1, hospital nurses, 6.2(p=0.000). A vaccine leaflet for patient counseling is developed with several references. In conclusion, due to no opportunity of vaccine education, pharmacists have no confidence to counsel patients and lack of knowledge of vaccine. But importance of vaccine's role is increasing, pharmacists should counsel patients in vaccination. So they need vaccine education and a vaccine leaflet will be helpful for their counseling.