Mandatory Flu Vaccines- How do you feel?

Nurses COVID

Published

Anyone else upset by the requirement to take flu vaccine or else... not even a mask option??? Only way out is a MD note stating "severe" allergy. Why is it we can't force our patients but our hospitals can force us.

I am pregnant and know I am high risk, but I took the vaccine in my last pregnancy and my son has an egg allergy. No proof linking, but no study not linking. I am so close to maternity leave and was going to wait until I delivered to be vaccinated. Do you know that they don't recommend the flu vaccine until a baby is 6 months but somehow it is safe for a near term "fetus"? Shouldn't we have the right to say no, just like out patients?

Specializes in FNP, ONP.

Yes, I really do. They aren't "threatening your career," that is unnecessarily hyperbolic and it makes it hard to take you seriously. You have the option of pursuing your career there or elsewhere. All the pontificating doesn't change the fact that it is an extremely simple and straight forward situation. They have set standards to which you must adhere if you wish to maintain the privilege of remaining in their employ. Opt to meet the standards, or not. I really do not see the need for all the drama. It is just a choice. One that is yours entirely. Your "alternative" is to work elsewhere. They don't owe you anything else. I am truly puzzled that you would suggest that they do. It is not a negotiation.:facepalm:

0 Votes
Asystole- Extraterrestrials aside, the lack of an alternative was my point. Is the State Health Dept a private sector provider?

BlueDevil- I did not say that, it was another post. Honestly, do you think that one's career being threaten is so flippant that it can be summed up to " It really isn't that big a conundrum". Once again, it's not the vaccine it is the lack of alternative.

Do employers have a right to set conditions upon the terms of employment of their employees as described in their contract, formal or informal? Yes.

The State Dept is not a private sector employer of course, but you still have the right to accept or decline the terms of employment. I certainly do not accept the conditions of my local State Dept, hence I declined to engage in the employer-employee relationship with them.

I understand the frustration over there not being an alternative but some people see the health of the patients and the employees to be so important that they made this policy mandatory. I do not fault them for that. Just imagine the amount of money that is lost to sick employees alone, not to mention what happens to the patients.

EDIT: OP, I do not want to freak you out but some hospitals are actually mandating that employees be nicotine free, and test for it. That means no smokes at work or at home...

0 Votes

Two of the letters are in opposition to the Feds mandating flu vaccines and the other opposes the flu vaccine AND requirement for masks.

Since we are discussing the right of employers mandating the vaccine, none of those addresses the current topic.

0 Votes

Your OP raises questions about flu vaccine safety because there are no studies refuting any link between flu vaccines in pregnant women and egg allergies in children, and you question safety if the vaccine because it's OK for a fetus but not newborn baby.....but you're OK getting the vaccine and this is about employee rights?

OK...

0 Votes
Specializes in Medicine.
I actually do have lots of employment opportunities because of my training.

I am one of those people that gets horribly ill about a week after the flu vaccine. Yes, I know you don't get the flu from the vaccine but it does SOMETHING to where I am horribly ill with 100% accuracy with a very high fever that knocks me on my rear for a minimum of a week.

One of the health nurses at my job came around and was high pressuring nurses to get the flu vaccine and I said, "I'll be happy to take the vaccine as long as they'll pay me if I get sick in a week to where I won't have to use my PTO time."

That is why I don't take it....I actually don't mind the illness, it's getting screwed out of my pay when I get sick that I get upset over.

I have to agree that the reaction seriously sucks. I had my first reaction to the flu shot about 2 years ago, and it was almost exactly 1 week after the shot. I had a really high fever but absolutely no other symptoms. So I felt like crap but that was pretty much it. It happened again last year almost exactly a week after as well. I'm in my first semester of a direct entry program, and I just got the vaccine on Friday. Can't wait for a week from now!

0 Votes

How would you feel if you knew that an unvaccinated tech got the flu and before she got really sick, handled many babies in the NICU for their x-rays? What if your baby was there?

0 Votes
it's probably mandatory because the hospital knows what a huge lawsuit could be waiting for them if something bad happens. if a nurse passes a flu virus onto an immunocompromised patient.....the lawyers would come after all of you with torches and pitchforks. one quick injection is a simple way to that sort of tragedy. a nurse saying "I just didn't feel like getting one" isn't going to cut it at the malpractice hearing.

Nope, because if they have any visiting family members, they'll have to prove that they got it from the nurse and not someone else.

You don't have to get the vaccine where I work but you cannot work if you are sick...we "push it through" in some departments, ie. Med-Surg, but if you are working with patients that have a compromised immune system, even the nurses don't try to push it through.

I don't refuse the flu shot because I'm afraid of needles...I could care less about that. I have never been afraid of shots. I hate missing work when I get sick later. As much as we get called off on low-census, that can mean the difference between getting paid or not.

So no, lawsuit won't happen. Court requires proof.

0 Votes

I would like to say though, I do think it is rather naive for a facility to mandate vaccine without a compromise. At my current employer we have the mask option, which is strictly enforced.

Someone posted awhile back that their facility tried the mandatory mask option...and when so many patients and families were asking why so many workers were walking around with masks, they dropped it. It sent a bad image.

0 Votes
How would you feel if you knew that an unvaccinated tech got the flu and before she got really sick, handled many babies in the NICU for their x-rays? What if your baby was there?

Are you under the misguided impression that if you get the flu vaccine, you won't get the flu?

Uh, doesn't work like that. This is the flaw with the flu shot. Officials make a prediction, about two years in advance, of what the three most common strains of the flu have been PREDICTED to hit.

That doesn't sound like an exact science to me.

0 Votes

Error.

0 Votes
Nope, because if they have any visiting family members, they'll have to prove that they got it from the nurse and not someone else.

You don't have to get the vaccine where I work but you cannot work if you are sick...we "push it through" in some departments, ie. Med-Surg, but if you are working with patients that have a compromised immune system, even the nurses don't try to push it through.

I don't refuse the flu shot because I'm afraid of needles...I could care less about that. I have never been afraid of shots. I hate missing work when I get sick later. As much as we get called off on low-census, that can mean the difference between getting paid or not.

So no, lawsuit won't happen. Court requires proof.

If you really believe this you are being naive. Patients have sued for less,

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment