Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

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  1. Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

    • 1998
      Yes
    • 5012
      No

7,010 members have participated

This is a hot topic, so I thought I'd ask all your opinion of allnurses.com community. According a survey linked below, 87% of the public think we should? What do you as a healthcare provider think? Please take a second and answer the poll, and make a comment if you wish. Thanks

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Specializes in ICU, Med-Surg, Post-op, Same-Day Surgery.

Isn't the "regular" flu shot technically a "new" vaccine every year since it is developed with different strains of the virus each year??

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/flu_vaccine_updates.htm

Also, the "Mandatory" flu shot at our hospital can be waived simply by signing a declination form stating that you don't want it. They do not take away our right to choose.

I understand that flu vaccines are not 100% effective (they tend to be 70-90% effective), but if it prevents you from getting it then it prevents you from: 1) missing work 2) spreading it to family, friends, and community members 3) spreading it to immunocompramised patients. Teachers, restaurant workers, and the general public do not have direct contact with severely immunicompramised patients on a daily basis. We do. Plus, if we are going to bring that issue up why don't all food preparers wear gloves and change them often between orders? Can't tell you how many times I've spotted bare hands in the kitchen and gloved hands on the cash register (shudder). I have never had the flu (KNOCKING ON WOOD HERE), but until I was in healthcare I took care to stay far away from sick, snotty, coughing people (and even friends that "don't feel right"). That's kinda unavoidable for me now, so I got the flu shot as extra protection for me and my patients.

Just my opinion. :-)

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absolutly not the final stages of testing are not evem completed yst and wont be until april 2010 there not even sure if you need 1 or 2 vaccinations according to med scape I will wait and see what happens to all of the others that are the human lab rats. They have no ideas about long term effects. The FDA has approved so many drugs that were deemed safe but caused many deaths and serious complications.

check out this link:

http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Surveillance/AdverseDrugEffects/ucm161063.htm

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The reason I feel so strongly about that, is because I'd hate to see nurses as "Typhoid Marys" exposing the public to a disease that has been shown to be lethal, when a vaccine is available to render them immune. If people with active Tb refuse (or are unreliable) to take their meds, the court can, and does restrict them to their homes, sending HH nurses in to give the meds by injection forceably, if need be. It would be a real pity if an insufficient number of HCWs made that necessary with nurses. However the length of time it takes the vaccine to render immunity, would make it unrealistic to do that. So the public will have to get the vaccine so that unvaccinated nurses won't spread H1N1 to them!:stone

The public should have to get the vaccine if anyone is being mandated at all.

Your "Typhoid Mary" is Joe Public, not the nurses, who has been walking around for days with the flu in denial, spreading it around, and then comes to the ER coughing and sneezing all over the nurses/staff wanting help.

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Specializes in ICU, Med-Surg, Post-op, Same-Day Surgery.
The public should have to get the vaccine if anyone is being mandated at all.

Your "Typhoid Mary" is Joe Public, not the nurses, who has been walking around for days with the flu in denial, spreading it around, and then comes to the ER coughing and sneezing all over the nurses/staff wanting help.

It is amazing how disgusting and unhygienic people can be when you sit down for a minute and watch. I can't begin to count how many people sneeze/cough into their hands and then touch everything in sight. Or the nursing student that "just can't miss a classs" and brings their infectious cold to everyone else. Better public education is sorely needed.

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Specializes in Psych NP.
It is amazing how disgusting and unhygienic people can be when you sit down for a minute and watch. I can't begin to count how many people sneeze/cough into their hands and then touch everything in sight. Or the nursing student that "just can't miss a classs" and brings their infectious cold to everyone else. Better public education is sorely needed.

Tell me about it; a while back I was at a grocery store right down the street from a hospital. I turned the corner of an aisle and the person coming around the other side sneezed right in my face; she didn't cover her her sneeze or anything. A few days later I was sick with something that lasted 2 weeks.

Speaking as a nursing student, if you think the not wanting to miss class thing is bad you should consider the not being able to miss clinicals problem. When we go through our critical care rotation it's so short that we absolutely cannot miss a clinical day and make up for it so students will come to the hospital sick and most of them don't know what precautions to take.

You can make the H1N1 vaccine mandatory for health care workers but it's meticulous infection control precautions that will keep us from spreading the virus from patient to patient and knowing when you need to call in from work. There will always be infections to spread and there will always be populations that are vulnerable to those infections; requiring workers to get vaccinated for one is not going to change that.

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This should absolutely not be mandatory and if it becomes that way I guess I will not be working. I hate that the news keeps advertising as "All pregnant women are urged to get the H1N1 vaccine." I asked my OB and she said she would definetly not recommend it. I'm 14 weeks pregnant and there's no way I would take it. Like others have said, it hasn't been studied and tested nearly enough to see what the side effects are. Heck, they wouldn't even let me take my FloNase because there weren't enough studies done, let alone take a new vaccine that had only begun research earlier this year. No Thanks!!

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Specializes in LTC.

Wasn't Typhoid Mary a cook? So if that were the case, not only nurses should be required to get vx'd, so should everyone that works at McDonalds, Luby's, Wal-Mart, etc be required to get vaccinated? (I know flu is not transmitted like typhoid, just trying to make a point:D). Just my thoughts...

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Specializes in NICU III/Transport.
Wasn't Typhoid Mary a cook? So if that were the case, not only nurses should be required to get vx'd, so should everyone that works at McDonalds, Luby's, Wal-Mart, etc be required to get vaccinated? (I know flu is not transmitted like typhoid, just trying to make a point:D). Just my thoughts...

...and, typhoid is caused by bacteria, not a virus. Despite both of those points,... a completely uneducated response by lamazeteacher. :down:

It infuriates me when people, especially medical professionals, compare influenza to any other vaccine. They're simply not the same. Our current medical approach will never eradicate the flu. Current medicine isn't preventing the spread from animal species (pig, bird) to humans or the combination of genes from human strains with animal strains... The influenza virus evolves rapidly and replaces a previous strain. Each season's flu vaccine is formulated from a previous influenza strain. A current vaccination may or may not produce immunity to a current strain. This is why people who always get the vaccine get sick one year when they didn't in previous years.

There is a very interesting (and scary) book about the flu, "Flu - The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It" by Gina Kolata. It includes information on the evolution of H1N1 ("swine flu") and H5N1 ("avian flu"). IMO, a must read.

Do not tell me what to put in my body. If I got sick with H1N1, I'd stay home, just like with any other strain of influenza. Don't wear a mask, stay home! You're full of crap if you think you can productively work an 8 or 12 hour shift without removing your mask.

As professionals, we should not be proliferating the media propaganda. Oh, this topic makes me angry. :banghead:

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

No, I do not trust the vaccine. Do you know, that Baxter had patented a flu vaccine covering these now infamous strains on August 28, 2008.

Baxter’s patent # US20090060950A1 includes “more than one antigen… such as influenza A and influenza B in particular selected from of one or more of the human H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, H5N1, H7N7, H1N2, H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7 subtypes, of the pig flu H1N1, H1N2, H3N1 and H3N2 subtypes, of the dog or horse flu H7N7, H3N8 subtypes, or of the avian H5N1, H7N2, H1N7, H7N3, H13N6, H5N9, H11N6, H3N8, H9N2, H5N2, H4N8, H10N7, H2N2, H8N4, H14N5, H6N5, H12N5 subtypes.”

As you may recall, the first swine flu case in Mexico didn’t emerge until mid-March, 2009, and the mixture of human-avian-swine viruses was considered to be quite an anomaly and not likely to occur through natural mutation…

There is a law suits against Baxter saying that they created the virus so they can have a profit from the vaccine.

http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=109&Itemid=81&lang=en

I know, it is sounds a bit paranoid, but I'll wait till the end of this story :)

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Specializes in Med Surg, ER, OR.

My body is simply that..."MY BODY." No one is going to force me to do anything that I do not want, and if I am uncomfortable with something, then I will not allow anyone to do anything to me. I do not feel ok with the H1N1 vaccine and no matter what others may state, it is not tested, and has not been proven to be safe! I know 'they' say it is safe, but 'they' include professionals who are paid to say a certain thing and who are the vaccines produced by? Pharmaceutical companies. Period. And, we all know that they don't get paid. :) Tis the reason why we no longer get our 'free' pens, but if we still could, I can imagine a "H1N1: the shot that will save your backside, maybe."

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

Annual TB vaccines is no longer required by CDC except in high risk areas/situations (jails, etc)

As for flu - we are following CDC guidelines. If you are symptomatic you go home and you stay there till you are 24 hours without fever OR meds. With H1N1 that could be a month without pay

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I totally agree that it is difficult to accept that the vax is safe when we haven't had a chance to study it for a longer period to determine if there will be long term implications. When you add to that the fact that they mention that they are unsure if 1 or 2 vax's are needed, it just makes people MORE uneasy. Afterall, the public, including med pro's, see over and over medications deemed 'SAFE' being recalled due to serious injury or death. In my opinion, having a vax IS a serious medical decision, and the choice should remain with the individual. Once again, if your sick, stay home, and ALWAYS practice standard precautions.

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