Early Research from Waggl Indicates that 58% of Frontline Healthcare Workers Are Most Concerned About COVID-19 Vaccine Adoption


Logo for The Voice of Healthcare Workers

“The Voice of Healthcare Workers” is a dynamic resource that enables frontline healthcare workers to share real-time suggestions and insights with their peers.

“We’ve developed ‘The Voice of Healthcare Workers’ to give our frontline healthcare heroes a collective voice and ensure all healthcare organizations and the people who work for them have the most current data and insights to navigate these next few months,” said Michel Papay, CEO, Waggl.

Waggl, the most powerful Employee Voice platform for hospital systems, today released preliminary results from “The Voice of Healthcare Workers,” a dynamic resource that enables frontline healthcare workers to share real-time suggestions and insights with their peers about the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination.

“With the COVID-19 vaccine being distributed to the front-line healthcare workforce, healthcare employees are once again giving the rest of the nation hope and strength through their bravery and their continued resolve,” said Michael Papay, Co-founder and CEO, Waggl. “Knowing that our health and safety are inextricably connected, we are excited to see several of our health systems start to ask their employees about their readiness to receive the vaccine, and their concerns for the greater community. We’ve developed ‘The Voice of Healthcare Workers’ to give our frontline healthcare heroes a collective voice and ensure all healthcare organizations and the people who work for them have the most current data and insights to navigate these next few months.”

For “The Voice of Healthcare Workers” collaborative pulse, hundreds of frontline healthcare workers participated in an important dialogue about the COVID-19 vaccination. The pulse is built on Waggl’s Employee Voice platform, a real-time platform that quickly and easily enables organizations to measure and improve engagement with crowdsourcing and simple data visualizations to create more actionable dialogue between leaders and their teams.

The initial pulse, which will continue to run until December 31, consists of three question statements and one open-ended question relating to the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination. An early preview of responses to date indicates that the vast majority of respondents plan to receive the vaccination once it is made available to them, with some variation by geography, racial/ethnic identification and role. In aggregate, 77% of participants agreed with the statement, “My organization has provided clear communication about our vaccination plan, including when the vaccine will be made available to me,” with physicians (82%) and healthcare workers who have multiple roles (86%) responding more affirmatively than nurses (71%) and non-clinical healthcare workers (70%).

Preliminary findings also indicate that 58% of healthcare workers have concerns about the broader community receiving the vaccine once it is made available to them, with significant state-by-state variation. Among clinical nurses, 65% expressed concerns. The pulse concluded with the open-ended question, “What is one suggestion you have to ensure a successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine to the broader community?” Crowdsourced responses were distilled into a ranked list. Here are the top five responses:

  • “Combat misinformation and establish confidence in the vaccine by educating the public on the actual data from the trials. People don’t seem to realize the vaccine has been studied in 20K people with robust safety and efficacy data. Also – government leadership on messaging the importance would help.”
  • “Increased education. If people don’t believe it’s safe it doesn’t matter how effective it is or how many doses are available, they won’t take it.”
  • “More explanation about how the vaccine works, that the sore arm, muscle aches, etc. are signs that our immune systems are learning how to fight COVID and why it’s important to keep using the masks even after you’ve had both vaccine injections.”
  • “The more healthcare workers show that they trust the science behind the vaccine, the less the general public will fear it. Keep sharing your vaccination!”
  • “Making it free! Multiple creative venues like parking lots or drive-thru areas, run by hospitals/pharmacists. Just like when doing massive swab tests for COVID.”

The most common themes emerging from this initial pulse include:

  • The importance of getting/receiving the vaccine
  • Safety and efficacy of the vaccine
  • Side effects
  • Clear communication
  • Community Leaders
  • Educating the public
  • Easy access
  • Transparency

“Throughout the past year, Waggl has helped to raise the voices of frontline healthcare workers, through our valued partnerships with leading hospital systems such as University of Utah Health, UCHealth, VA North Texas, and others,” said Michael Papay, Co-founder and CEO, Waggl. “We’ve witnessed our healthcare customers using Waggl to ask their people important questions about topics ranging from how they could help with their safety and well-being, to how they could simplify their work and boost their effectiveness. The responsiveness and agility we’ve witnessed has been unprecedented and has undoubtedly fueled the resilience we’re seeing across so many organizations.”

In a further effort to bring urgency to capturing the voice of healthcare providers, such as frontline nurses, Waggl will offer the keynote at Opal Group’s Chief Nursing Officer Annual Summit on January 21, and share results data and critical insights that can better inform Nursing Leaders and their organizations on vaccine rollout.

To participate in the “The Voice of Healthcare Workers” pulse, please visit https://bit.ly/3pbTp5B.

About Waggl

Waggl is a real-time Employee Voice platform that quickly and easily enables organizations, including numerous prestigious healthcare systems, to measure and improve engagement with crowdsourcing and simple data visualizations to create more actionable dialogue between leaders and their teams. Inspired by the waggle dance honeybees do to communicate vital information, Waggl believes every voice matters. Unlike heavy surveys or basic pulse tools, Waggl is a dialogue-first approach to engagement that creates shared ownership through inclusive team-based action planning.

With a seasoned Executive Team and premiere customers including Freddie Mac, UCHealth, University of Utah Health, Paychex, Heineken, 3M, Mastercard, UCSF Medical Center, McGraw Hill, Taylor Morrison and Parsons, Waggl partners with leading enterprises to harness the collective intelligence of their people. For more information and an expanded customer list, please visit https://www.waggl.com.

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