Özet:

Objective: Vaccination is one the most effective, reliable and very low-cost method of protection in protecting human health and preventing epidemics. Strengthening the immune system against infectious diseases is the right of every human being. Vaccination is one of the most important preventive practices from past to present in terms of protecting public health. In this study, it was aimed to determine the opinions of Van Yuzuncu Yıl University (YYU) Vocational School of Health Services students about the importance of vaccine and vaccine in vaccine preventable diseases, their attitudes towards vaccination and their vaccination status. Method: This descriptive study is a questionnaire consisting of 20 questions prepared to evaluate the opinions of the students studying at Van YYU Health Services Vocational School in the 2021-2022 academic year about the vaccine and its importance. Descriptive statistics: It was expressed as numbers and percentages for categorical variables, and as mean and standard deviation for continuous variables. Results: 54.5% of the participants think that their knowledge about the vaccine is not sufficient, 40.4% think that the vaccine is not effective enough to protect against diseases, and 70.4% think that the vaccine is not effective in eliminating epidemics completely. 69.4% of the participants stated that they were hesitant about getting vaccinated, and 85.2% stated that vaccines had side effects. Conclusion: Contrary to expectations, it was determined that the participants' hesitations about the importance and safety of vaccines were at a high level. It was observed that most of the students had insufficient knowledge about the vaccine and its importance.