Vaccination in Latin America: Communication Between Health Workers and Community is Key to Achieving Access

Today’s blog post comes to us from Lucía Ferro of GLOBALHealthPR Argentina partner, Paradigma PEL Comunicación.

Vaccination has a significant impact on the decrease in infectious diseases – it can help prevent up to three million deaths each year, making it one of the most successful public health investments. But in Latin America, vaccination continues to be a big challenge because key segments of the population, such as the members of some indigenous communities and those in geographically isolated regions, have little access to routine immunization services.

In Argentina, like the rest of the region, vaccinators and healthcare agents work tirelessly to ensure that low-income citizens or those who experience difficulties in accessing health care centers achieve a better quality of life through vaccination.

As part of its training program, the National Ministry of Health recently hosted a meeting in Patagonia which gathered the region’s main vaccinators. Entitled “Communication between us and the community: a symbol of closeness,” this moving meeting placed communication at the center of vaccination. experts highlighted the value of the role played by health workers in raising the community’s awareness of the importance of healthcare. Also, discussions were held on how to optimize communication in order to create an environment of confidence and trust in the relationship with patients. Effective communication leads to higher patient adherence to vaccination calendars. On the contrary, when communication is poor and inefficient, patients do not complete the necessary vaccine series, putting their health at risk. Several health-care agents who visit the most inhospitable areas in the south of the country on a daily basis shared their experiences and their tools to improve communication with their patients. They underlined measures which, though simple, have an enormous impact. Most important were:

• Scheduled dates and times for vaccinations that help organize the actions without hindering the normal performance of other activities.
• Informative talks in neighborhoods or interviews in the local media.
• Reaching patients who attend rural schools, reside far from health centers, or who don’t have easy access to health centers.
• Take advantage of every vaccination opportunity: immunizing those patients who, even though they are not locals, need to be vaccinated because they belong to a risk group.
• Persistence: Visiting again those areas where it had not been possible to locate patients that have to be vaccinated.

In addition, three fundamental points were underlined in relation to the meeting with the patient at the time of vaccination:

• Mutual attention: The patient should be attentive and health care professionals should devote their full attention to the patient and not get distracted by other activities while they are with the patient.
• Positiveness: Expressed in the kindness showed during the meeting.
• Empathy: Putting yourself in another person’s shoes. Good intentions are not enough, it is necessary to show others that you understand them.

All those attending the meeting agreed that communication, particularly non-verbal language, plays an essential role in their work and underlined that a relaxed attitude, visual contact and the attention showed when addressing the patient convey serenity and generate a better rapport between them and the patient.

The application of mutual attention, positivity and empathy is not exclusive to vaccination campaigns. As professional communicators, we must keep these tenets in mind in our service to clients.