Physician self-disclosure and vaccine-critical parents׳ trust: Preparing medical students for parents׳ difficult questions

Abstract

This paper introduces a controversial proposition emerging from an arts-based project on vaccine hesitancy: the relationship between physicians’ self-disclosure and vaccine-critical parents’ trust. Vaccine-critical parents are one of the most challenging noncompliant populations for health care providers, as these parents’ health beliefs often dramatically deviate from modern medical guidelines. Medical students are not typically exposed to authentic vaccine-critical parents’ concerns and expectations, leaving the students unprepared for the confronting questions the parents may pose in a face-to-face encounter. This study identifies two interrelated factors that influence vaccine-critical parents’ level of trust in their health-care provider. First, the parents have a need for their physician to be present as a “whole person”—aware of and able to communicate their personal-professional motivations and beliefs by using associated self-disclosure. Second, the parents see a moral imperative both for themselves and their physicians to “do research” on vaccines; they expect their physician to be familiar with studies for and against their immunization recommendations. Ideally, the students would be exposed to authentic vaccine-critical parents’ views, while simultaneously becoming familiar with and confident in expressing their professional moral compass.