Mandatory Flu Vaccines- How do you feel?

Nurses COVID

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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 Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
It is not the matter of getting the flu shot. It is the false belief that it is 100% effective.

I've seen this whole "It's not 100% effective" bandied around in this thread, but I've not seen anyone claiming that it *is* 100% effective. So what's the point of using that as an argument?

NOTHING in life is 100%, other than physical death.

People die from simple things every day -- broken bones can lead to fat embolus or infection. Simple appendectomy or tonsillectomy can lead to sepsis. Typical woman in labor can bleed out for no apparent reason.

Stuff happens. (Forrest Gump said so, even!)

But the fact of the matter remains, more people are saved from death and disability every year because of the flu vaccine than are damaged by the flu vaccine. And more people die from the flu and its complications than die from receiving the flu vaccine.

Is it 100% guaranteed to protect against the flu? Nope. But not getting the shot doesn't mean you won't become sick or dead either....

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The law states that the employer has the right to offer the mask option, and mine does not. The point I am trying to get across is just because you get the flu shot it does not mean the patients are protected. It is not 100% effective. if they did not pick the right strains, no one has protection from the flu. I have educated myself on the vaccine and the law, that is why I know this :banghead:

I do not know anyone who thinks that the vaccine is 100%. In fact, there is no intervention that has 100% efficacy.

Just because handwashing is not 100% effective, should we abandon the practice or make alternatives?

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

if you were swabbed for MRSA you would be positive. Almost a guarantee. MRSA is opportunistic. It is common to all of us, but if our immune system is down or we have a break in our barrier (skin) then we are allowing an opportunity for infection. But the germ is always around.

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So if you are sure I have MRSA and so does every other nurse then why, oh why do I wear the ppe? Think about it......so we should gown/glove the entire time in hospital?

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So if you are sure I have MRSA and so does every other nurse then why, oh why do I wear the ppe? Think about it......so we should gown/glove the entire time in hospital?

Colonization is a huge area of study and controversy right now.

Some facilities do isolate those who are colonized, some do not. I am aware of several facilities that swab for MRSA and isolate if positive in addition to isolating anyone with a history of MRSA. For the most part the risk of transmission has to do with the amount of organisms present and the virulence of the pathogen. If you are colonized with an organism but you are not sick, either the numbers present or virulence is low.

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if you were swabbed for MRSA you would be positive. Almost a guarantee. MRSA is opportunistic. It is common to all of us, but if our immune system is down or we have a break in our barrier (skin) then we are allowing an opportunity for infection. But the germ is always around.

According to this article, MRSA colonization prevalence in healthcare workers in North America are 4%, and 4.6% world wide.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEUQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gesundheit.belgien.be%2Finternet2Prd%2Fgroups%2Fpublic%2F%40public%2F%40dg1%2F%40acutecare%2Fdocuments%2Fie2divers%2F14410545.pdf&ei=zVFzUKeMHOXsiwK22IDwDQ&usg=AFQjCNGVzlgmnl5drVY2EMT5Sl2yYq5YMQ&sig2=Uk3gFwTbttSBBXnA_tAKTA

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

Obviously, I'm a proponent of the flu vaccine. I guess it comes from years of nursing and seeing elderly and compromised people die from influenza. One who came as close to dying as a person can was my mother who caught the flu at the age of 53 and it progressed to bilateral pneumonia which lead to ARDS which lead to 2 months in ICU on a ventilator and at one time involved 5 chest tubes inserted at the same time. I guess that may have helped develop my strong opinion on the subject.

I do want to say that I have never thought nor told anyone that the flu shot is 100% effective. I also still wash my hands as I always have and encourage my patients and family to do the same all the time. I also don't believe that my insurance company would pay for everyone to have flu shots so pharmacies can make more money. I believe they pay for it because it saves them money on the other end from people getting really sick with the flu. Don't ask how much my mother's hospital bill was. You don't want to know.

I'm not a scientist, but I have always been told that they develop the flu vaccine for the upcoming season based on studies of the influenza strain that is in other parts of the world in the months prior to our flu season. It was my understanding that if you get the vaccine and are then exposed to another strain, yes, you may develop the flu, but your symptoms will not be as bad because of the vaccine you received and you will recover quicker.

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I am certainly no vaccine-o-phobe, and it's clear to me how much good vaccines have done in the world to date.

However, I oppose mandatory vaccination policies on principle. I think I ought to be able to decide what I put into my own body. Thank goodness I'm backed by a union that agrees.

I think the best way to approach public health issues such as this is through education, not punitive policies. Provide people with balanced, objective information, and let them decide for themselves.

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Specializes in ICU, step down, dialysis.

This is a video on this very subject that I ran across on CNN today, if anyone is interested:

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

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If you would gladly get the flu shot if it was mandated why don't you gladly get it now?

Because I already had it two weeks ago. Kind of silly to get it twice, don't you think?

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It does not stop. Ever.

If it were the government mandating that all citizens have the flu shot, then I might agree with you, but it's not. It's an employer and they have the right. I suppose they got tired of educated health professionals getting sick every year and costing them money, having to pay overtime to employees who got their flu shot while all the ones who didn't are home sick. As others have said, we had to get the HepB vaccine, too. I have to get a TB skin test every year and I don't even see patients anymore.

I have to do things every day for my job and in my personal life that I would rather not do. Some of the things I don't want to do keep me from being homeless.

If it were that important, then the gov't would mandate it...but they don't.

I could care less whether a facility makes money or not and they only have the "right" because the nurses won't band together and stand up against it.

Another good reason why there needs to be a NATIONAL nurses union.

There is a big difference between a TEST and FORCED MEDICATION. Not every employee "requires" the HepB vaccine...mine doesn't. You simply sign a waiver if you choose not to take the shot.

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You didn't say "won." You said that no one could sue for that, that "the court requires proof." That's lovely, but the court CLERK merely requires a filing fee. Between that and "proof" or dismissal, many dollars are shed. The question is whether or not someone will win. It is whether they will sue. When they do, the costs are expended, whether they are spent being given to the plaintiff or not.

Your flippant attitude about lawsuits suggests that you don't have much experience with them.

Honey, let me give you some education very quickly.

I could hire an attorney right now, to get a court order, track down your Allnurses.com screen name right back to your ISP which is like getting an address to your house and sue you just because I don't like this post.

I can FILE anything I want.

THAT DOESN'T MEAN I'LL WIN AND COLLECT A DIME.

Yes, I said "won"...go back and re-read my post. I can tell by your post that you don't know the difference between FILING and WINNING.

PS: You can only collect if you win and even that, is if you have something to take.

The vast majority of malpractice cases, just so you know, are taken ON CONTINGENCY by lawyers. You really think some sick guy has $250/hr to pay an attorney for a case that can take years to win? Uh, that would be a no.

That is because, most malpractice attorneys ONLY TAKE CASES THEY THINK THEY CAN WIN!!!!

An UNPROVABLE accusation such as getting the flu while you are a patient in a hospital while you are receiving visitors and tracing that back to a SINGLE NURSE, is not proveable by any stretch of the imagination, not even in the Twilight Zone.

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