Recruiting and training a skilled workforce to deliver mass vaccination: a rapid summary

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Introduction

We conducted this rapid summary during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We carried out a search to identify and summarise research evidence to answer the following questions:

• How could a sufficiently large and appropriately skilled workforce be recruited and trained to deliver vaccination?
• How could healthcare students and retired healthcare professionals be mobilised?
• Are some approaches better than others?

Main points

How up to date is this evidence?

We searched for evidence in 2020, and the summary includes evidence from 2012 to 2020.

What we found

Thirteen sources were identified that were broadly relevant to the review questions. There was very little research evidence on how a workforce to deliver mass vaccination could be recruited and trained.

Recruitment

• Mass emails, personal invitations, and website advertisements have been used to recruit student and medical volunteers for vaccination in the USA and COVID-19 testing in Switzerland, but no information was found on how effective these approaches were.
• In Wales, retired staff can register to re-join the NHS through the Welsh Government website.
• In the USA, the Medical Reserve Corps, a national network of locally organised volunteers that includes medical and public health professionals and community members without medical backgrounds, can be mobilised to support mass vaccination.
• In the UK, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health has set up a register of people willing to volunteer during the coronavirus pandemic, including people with public health and administrative skills working in private and business sectors.
• Staff supporting mass vaccination may be paid or volunteers and can include roles such as greeters, traffic directors, form reviewers, and supply runners.
• An example from a school-based clinic in the USA estimated that four non-medical staff members were needed for each vaccinator.
• When student volunteers are used, rotating students through clinics or using four-hour or half-day shifts may help encourage volunteering.

Training

• Case studies, mainly from the USA, suggest that volunteer healthcare students, including nursing, medical, and pharmacy students, can be trained to vaccinate using just-in-time training approaches.
• Just-in-time training has also been used in simulation exercises in the USA to train Medical Reserve Corps dentists and dental hygienists to administer vaccinations and to carry out other roles needed for point-of-dispensing models.
• One small non-randomised study compared in-person immunisation training of pharmacists with a train-the-trainer model using the same materials and found no significant difference in vaccinations delivered or in self-reported staff confidence.
• A randomised pilot study compared traditional training with just-in-time training for pharmacy students administering paediatric influenza vaccine in a simulated setting and found no significant differences in self-reported comfort, confidence, or evaluated competence.

Technical information

This summary may be useful to identify key points on the topic. However, the included research has not been assessed for quality and comes from a wide range of published material.