Dr Michael Johnston points out that the working patterns of younger healthcare workers make it more difficult to get vaccinated
As a junior doctor, I was intrigued by your article on the non-peer-reviewed publication of a cross-sectional study of Covid vaccination undertaken at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS trust (Vaccine hesitancy in some health workers in England ‘may undermine rollout’, 14 February). The report stated that because nearly a third of unvaccinated staff were under 30, the findings of the paper suggest that “younger healthcare workers may not appreciate the importance of being immunised, or are more hesitant about the jabs”.
There is no survey data in the study to support this speculative comment. Furthermore, it appears to suggest a certain naivety regarding the working patterns of junior doctors and junior staff nurses. Administrative and executive staff have no unscheduled clinical duties. Senior clinical staff have non-clinical sessions whereby they are available to go off-site or queue for a vaccination. In contrast, junior doctors and staff nurses have unpredictable shift patterns, which include a high burden of night shifts, frequent on-call duties, the carrying of emergency pagers and the covering of vacancies at short notice. It has even been demonstrated that junior doctors barely have the time to have a drink or to go to the toilet (Urine output on an intensive care unit: case-control study, BMJ, 2010).
