Helping medical providers discuss COVID-19 vaccines with hesitant patients

A new toolkit created by a team at Ariadne Labs aims to help increase public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines.

The toolkit includes best practices for medical providers looking to start conversations about the vaccines with hesitant patients. It addresses several areas that patients may be reluctant about—concerns about getting sick from the vaccine, doubts about whether it actually offers protection, and distrust in the drug companies and government officials that were involved in developing and approving the vaccines.

“The purpose of creating the toolkit was to make sure that actual conversations based on facts, based on listening to concerns, answering with accurate information…were happening, rather than people making decisions based on anecdotes or their Facebook feeds,” said Evan Benjamin, chief medical officer at Ariadne Labs and an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in a May 7, 2021, Boston.com article.

Benjamin led the team that created the toolkit, which includes techniques on nonjudgmental listening, tips for easing into difficult discussions, and suggested language on how to answer common vaccine questions.

Read the Boston.com article: Vaccine hesitancy could prolong the pandemic. A local team created a toolkit to overcome it.