Public relations strategies employed by the Ghana Health Service to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: a qualitative inquiry

Abstract

Background Strategies for developing and advancing good public relations can be recognized in nearly all fields of life without making an exception for the healthcare industry. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, matters of public health have gathered more force. The importance of effective public relations for improving healthcare is highlighted by the position that immediate access to reliable health information should be the hallmark of a just society. However, the strategies available for addressing major threats to the uptake of public health services such as mass vaccination campaigns are not properly studied and documented in the Ghanaian context. This organizational case study explored strategies used by healthcare professionals working with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to address COVID-19-related vaccine hesitancy in the country. Methods We performed a qualitative inquiry with semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 25 public health officials of the GHS. The interviews were timed to coincide with the mass deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in four Regions. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Data collected included demographic characteristics, perspectives on public relations strategies used in the past year to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake as well as successes and pitfalls. Thematic analysis was performed with NVIVO software to generate themes from interview transcripts. Results Four main themes emerged from the data analysis and these are presented. Healthcare workers perceived vaccine hesitancy to be a threat with the potential to undermine an important strategic organizational goal related to COVID-19 illness. In terms of PR strategies, we determined that a combination of informative, motivational, persuasive and coercive public relations strategies was employed by the Ghana Health Service to address the challenge of vaccine hesitancy. We further found that PR strategies were deployed across both traditional (print, radio, TV) and emerging/social media networks. Officials were optimistic that the strategies would produce results, but were uncertain whether they could attribute current successes or failures to the PR strategies used. Conclusion Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public relations strategies which have been employed by the Ghana Health Service to address vaccine hesitancy are characterized and catalogued. The nature of the audience and PR strategies employed suggests that the effect of these strategies may be short-lived unless they are constantly reinforced by the GHS. These findings show that effective PR strategies exist for addressing vaccine hesitancy in public health practice.

COVID-19 vaccination uptake among healthcare workers in Ghana: A comprehensive analysis of knowledge, attitude, perceived vaccine effectiveness, and health belief model constructs

“…In the context of COVID-19 vaccination, governments, and experts’ provision of accurate information about the vaccine acts as triggers to encourage active participation in vaccination initiatives [86]. Ghana employed a combination of informative, motivational, and coercive strategies to address vaccine hesitancy [87]. This strategy could have resulted in high cues to action among HCWs, explaining our findings in this study, and this could have resulted in the higher vaccine uptake reported in this study.…”

Childhood immunization in Ghana: Tracing the history and projecting the future

“…In Ghana, childhood immunization is a vital component of the country's public health strategy against under‐five morbidity and mortality. The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is responsible for implementing the national immunization program, which aims to provide vaccines to all eligible children [2]. The GHS has developed a comprehensive immunization schedule that includes vaccines against diseases such as measles, polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and yellow fever [2].…”

“…The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is responsible for implementing the national immunization program, which aims to provide vaccines to all eligible children [2]. The GHS has developed a comprehensive immunization schedule that includes vaccines against diseases such as measles, polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and yellow fever [2]. Ghana has made considerable progress in increasing childhood immunization coverage rate in recent years.…”