COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Counseling Intervention for Pharmacists: A Stepped-Wedge Trial

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to test if virtual facilitation (e.g., video coaching) increases rural pharmacists' ability to implement COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy counseling when compared to a "standard" implementation approach (e.g., training and dissemination of implementation support tools) in rural pharmacies. The main question it aims to answer is if virtual facilitation improves fidelity to a newly developed vaccine hesitancy counseling intervention when compared to standard implementation.

All participants will begin in the standard implementation condition, where they will complete a webinar on COVID-19 vaccinations and a 30-minute online training on vaccine hesitancy communication. After standard implementation, they will switch to the virtual facilitation condition where they will be assigned a virtual coach to help them with implementing the intervention. There will be six fidelity observations per each 8-week intervention period to determine whether pharmacists are implementing the intervention as intended. Researchers will compare fidelity between the standard and virtual facilitation conditions.

Conditions

• COVID-19

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Standard implementation webinar and online training

The one-hour webinar (either live or pre-recorded) will include updated information about the COVID-19 virus, variant nomenclature, vaccine eligibility, mechanisms of action, and outcomes. The 30-minute online training addresses how to communicate about COVID-19 vaccinations, presents a 5-step process for initiating conversations, includes example verbiage about how to address specific concerns, and has example videos that show how to implement the 5-step process with vaccine hesitant patients.

BEHAVIORAL

Virtual facilitation

This intervention involves a 30-minute virtual facilitation site visit and at least 8, 30-minute virtual facilitator coaching sessions. The virtual site visit over Zoom will establish the personnel and workflows at each pharmacy and allow the facilitator to establish rapport. Weekly Zoom calls will allow the virtual facilitator to work with a participant to review overall implementation challenges associated with approaching patients, delivering the intervention, and documenting results. Lastly, either the facilitator or the participant can request and schedule a Zoom call to go over any pressing implementation issue in need of rapid attention (e.g., technical difficulties with the website).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Arkansas

  collaborator OTHER

• University of South Carolina

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

  collaborator NIH

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Delesha M Carpenter, PhD · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Geoffrey Curran, PhD · University of Arkansas

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

99 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-08-05

Primary Completion

2025-03-07

Completion

2025-04-01

Countries

• United States

Study Locations