Communicating with Caregivers about the Human Papillomavirus Vaccination: A Tool to Build Confidence in Communication Skills among Health Workers

"Caregivers and patients require consistent and accurate information about vaccine safety and benefits from all their health care providers, conveyed in a respectful and positive manner."

Health workers (HWs) play a central role in maintaining public trust in vaccination that includes addressing concerns of caregivers. The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe designed this training module, with accompanying facilitator's guide, to equip HWs with the knowledge, skills, confidence, and resources they need to recommend the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. WHO's aim is to provide a guided approach to facilitating effective conversations with caregivers about HPV vaccination.

It is expected that participants in the training, which could be delivered in person or online, will gain skills to start conversations about HPV vaccination, address caregivers' concerns, and build confidence in the HPV vaccines. The training covers best practices in vaccination safety communication, including: specific and serious risks of vaccine-preventable diseases, possible side effects of vaccines, managing adverse events, the importance of clear language and framing conversations, motivational interviewing (MI) techniques, and pain mitigation strategies.

The training module consists of 5 parts:

1. Vaccine confidence and the role of health workers
2. Communicating risks and benefits
3. Factors influencing caregivers' acceptance of HPV vaccination
4. Communicating with caregivers using motivational interviewing
5. Putting the conversation pieces together to build confidence in communicating about HPV vaccination

The facilitator's guide provides detailed explanations, resources, guidance, and training activities to accompany the slides in the training module and to support those implementing the training. Facilitators can use this guide to help them adapt the training content to their local context and facilitate discussion with training participants.