Shot or Not? An Analysis of Parental Vaccine Hesitancy in the United States

Julianna Ficarra, Verrazzano Class of 2025, completed major in Nursing

For my capstone, I chose to complete a literature review about pediatric vaccine hesitancy among parents in the United States. I am particularly interested in this topic because I have worked for a pediatrician for several years and have been exposed to parents making decisions about their children's vaccines almost every day. Many parents would look to me for advice, and I realized that even though I would never push my personal opinion on them, I didn't even have any factual information to guide them with! The office provides printed supplemental information from the CDC website for parents about each vaccine, and gives them time to do other research as they see fit, and I wanted to do some research of my own.

I had a great experience writing my capstone paper with the tremendous help form Professor Brillhart, who also played a part in inspiring me to choose this topic. I also spoke to another wonderful Professor of mine, Professor Erichsen, about some ideas I was brainstorming, and she reinforced the idea to look into pediatric vaccines as well. I am very fortunate to have met these two professors through CSI's Nursing program and continue to learn from them even after completing their courses.

I expected that completing this capstone project would be time-consuming, challenging, and eye opening, and I was correct! It was easy to write about something I'm passionate about once I got started, and I was surprised by how much information is out there to support both points of view regarding pediatric and adolescent vaccine administration. I also looked into how the United States compared to other countries on this topic, such as Australia. I would further explore the personal fears and opinions of parents in my community regarding pediatric vaccine administration.

Through my research, I found that many of the driving factors that influence parental vaccine hesitancy are socioeconomic challenges, traditional and cultural beliefs, social media misinformation and overall lack of knowledge. Many parents were also influenced by a study published in 1998 that stated that the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine was connected to autism. This study was retracted several years later, after it had created fear in parents all over the world. Through completion of this paper, I will take with me key APA format corrections that Professor Brillhart taught me, along with all of the information I discovered regarding the reasons behind parental vaccine hesitancy.