Mandatory Flu Vaccines- How do you feel?

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I have taken the flu shot before, unwillingly. I don't know what toxins are going into my body, as vaccine companies and the FDA are not honest about the additives in the vaccines. Every year I wonder if I am going to die of Guillane-Barre. And every year, inevitably, I still get sick with flu-like symptoms. I am very disturbed by one comment by a young nurse about older nurses "whining" about getting the flu shot. Maybe it's all the preservatives in vaccines that have f-ed up the brains of people born after 1985 that makes young people conformists. This I say as a person born after 1985.

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NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN

10 Articles; 18,299 Posts

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Moved to the Pandemic Flu forum

imjustme123

84 Posts

I just left nursing school over this issue. I made sure I was able to sign off on the flu vaccine before starting. Now, after quitting my job and starting school it has been MANDATED we MUST get the shot or we can't go to school. So, after being given no leeway in school, I quit. I think it is becoming a national tragedy. I didn't know this was such a huge issue. I realize I do not want to have to fight this all the time just to be a nurse.

imjustme123

84 Posts

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?

Or if perhaps a vaccinated tech handled them. They get the flu too. Maybe everybody should wear masks all the time.

Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

The vaccine is a condition of my employment.

What I want doesn't seen to matter.

wooh, BSN, RN

1 Article; 4,383 Posts

I just find it ironic that my workplace trusts my judgment when it comes to my patients' healthcare. They don't trust my judgment when it comes to my own healthcare.

But such is life.

JMBnurse

82 Posts

Specializes in Oncology, Med/Surg, Hospice, Case Mgmt..

I have voluntarily received a flu shot every year for the past 16 yrs, since I became a nurse. I am scheduled to receive this year's vaccination next week at work. I have not had the flu since I was a child. I have not worked in a hospital in 3 1/2 yrs and just as I was leaving my last hospital job they were requiring the flu shot for all employees. Needless to say, it was controversial. At the time, they gave employees the option of wearing a mask all day and I never did get to see how that all went down. I think it's ridiculous for nurses and doctors to wears masks for entire shifts. How startling that must be for the patients. I hope they decided against that option.

Yes, the potential exposure to compromised patients is an important issue, but in my opinion, it has as much to do with the staff who do not get the flu shot and then miss 2 weeks of work every winter because they and their whole family get the flu. Then they spread it to the employees who absolutely cannot receive the vaccination. Oddly, I don't ever remember anyone missing work because of the flu vaccine.

A typical exchange between myself and a fellow nurse at hospital around flu shot time every stinking year:

Me- "You better get your flu shot. If you don't, you're going to get sick and miss 2 weeks of work. That's not fair to the rest of us who have to work."

Them- "I can't take the flu shot! Every time I do, it makes me siiiiicckkkkk!"

Me- "You're crazy. It does not make you sick. Stop saying that, you're a nurse. Get the *&%$ shot."

HippyDippyLPN

351 Posts

the ONLY reason it bothers me is that it's mandated. Not that its the flu shot (which my job does inforce) but I do not like when a employer steps into personal descions and forces as a do it or be fired issue. It worries me that its becoming okay to become intrusive into a employee's personal life because when does it stop.

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

Find me a single lawsuit that was WON where the patient actually collected to where they were able to trace back an infection of a common, everyone-has-it illness to a single NURSE. You'll be hard pressed to Google one that was even filed.

Me- "You better get your flu shot. If you don't, you're going to get sick and miss 2 weeks of work. That's not fair to the rest of us who have to work."

Them- "I can't take the flu shot! Every time I do, it makes me siiiiicckkkkk!"

Me- "You're crazy. It does not make you sick. Stop saying that, you're a nurse. Get the *&%$ shot."

There is a difference between people believing you get the flu from the vaccine (false) to getting sick shortly after they get the vaccine (true). While many people do not, there are some of us that do.

When I was younger, I took the vaccine every year and then I stopped because as I got older, instead of missing classes, I was missing work and income. I never took the flu shot until the week after exams so I could get rid of my illness by the time Christmas came around.

It always hit 6 to 7 days after the shot and that's pretty bad when you can literally, mark it on a calender.

The absentee rate at our hospital always mysteriously goes up, about a week after a "flu shot fair"..per a representative in HR.

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.

I read through a couple of your other posts to get a feel for the meaning behind your response. This is a quote from a previous post from you...."Hooray for socialized medicine! I love it how government can dictate how we use our bodies. " Glad we draw the line at government but for-profits do what you will to me. I have rights, just not as many as the patients I care for. FYI- in some states this is mandated by the department of health. That is a government agency.....

I do enjoy a good post stalking. "In 127 AllNurses 5th 474 (2010), you stated...." LOL

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
Every flu season it's the same thread.

Yes you do have the right to refuse the vaccine, just as your employer will have the right to terminate you or suspend you until after flu season.

My employer says they will "take you off the schedule." My response: "Promise?!"

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