Annual flu vaccine - Will you get yours this year and why?

Nurses General Nursing

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Each year I give our staff the annual flu vaccine. I find many people are hesitant to take advantage of this opportunity. Will you get your flu vaccine this year? If not why?

Cali:nurse:

Specializes in Med-Surg.

I know the flu shot is designed to protect me from the flu strains CDC predicts for this year, and sometimes other strains become more common..

...and, yes I may have a mild reaction...achy, mild temp for a day or so,..

but I NEVER WANT TO HAVE FLU AGAIN !!!

This is not a bad cold !! I'm talking about flat in bed for 3 days, every bone and muscle hurting, cough ? oh what a cough!!, fever, chills, felt awful for another week, then just moderately lousy, missed way to much work, got secondary bronchitis afterwards.....

small fortune in doc visits, OTC remidies and prescriptions...

I want the odds in my favor.

Something I notice around here though, folks call a case of gastroenteritis "the flu" then say " that flu shot didn't work, I was throwing up for 24 hours..."

We have some educating to do!!

I worked on a Long Term Care facility and it was highly recommended but not mandatory (and free for all hospital employees). I got so sick the next day and then I was fine after that. So I had it last year to see what I would be like...if I was sick again I wasn't going to get it this year. But after having it I was told by some people that the long term effects of this flu shot are not so good...but I haven't read anything about it myself.

Last year we lost a large number of residents to pneumonia...after they had the flu shot. Either it was due to that or a different strain than was in the shot...who knows.

And I rarely get sick anyway...just a head cold every now and then. So why bother?

Amanda :)

I got the vaccine for the first time last year and I swear I got the flu on one side of my body the next day. At least that is what it felt like. What was weird that every year since I can remember I have gotten the flu. The one year I get the vaccine, I got everything BUT the flu. Gastroenteritis, sinusitis, strep. But no flu. Usually I get my flu and I am fine in a week. I got the vaccine and it was like the flu was punishing me with other illnesses.

I have had a flu shot every year since 1989, except last year. IFirst the vaccine was difficult to get, and then I was out of town when we had our immunizations at work, in December. In january, I came down with haemophilus influenza! You can bet your boots that I will be getting one this year!

BTW, those of you who have had an adverse reaction to the vaccine-up to 10% of those vaccinated experience a low-grade fever, body aches, and H/A. That is nothing like being in the bed with the flu, or having it for 2 weeks and being hospitalized, as happened to so many people the winter of '97.

There is also the concomitant factor: you may have been incubating a germ of some sort for several hours or days, up to the time you get your vaccine. The appearance of illness after the vaccine always seems to credited to the vaccine, but you may very well have become ill without the vaccine. The timing was just coincidental. If we have this many educated health professionals unwilling to be vaccinated against disease, what will happen if it becomes mandatory to receive a smallpox vaccine?:rolleyes: :confused:

Another thing to consider-even if vaccinated, you may have a bout of the flu, but it will likely be attenuated in length and severity, due to the vaccine.;)

I always got the flu before I started getting flu shots. The last time I was sicker than I'd ever been. After that I've always gotten the shot and never got the flu. Never had a reaction or a problem.

I'll be in my first tri of pregnancy when the flu shots are given around here.................so none for me, thanks!

Yes! I will get my flu vaccine this year as I have over the past 20 years. I have noticed that not only do I not get the flu, I no longer get colds. I worked with an Infectious Diseases MD and she told me after several years of getting the flu shot, you developed a stronger resistance to the cold virus! I am a believer.

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
Originally posted by fergus51

I get one because I don't want to spread it to some old person or baby and kill them.

This is my main reason for getting one, too. Most people think of only themselves when they are deciding whether or not to get the vaccine. They think, "I am young and healthy ... and even if I do get the flu, it probably won't be that bad ... so, I'll take my chances." They forget that while they are in the process of coming down with the flu, they are spreading the virus throughout the community -- to the elderly lady in the grocery store, the child who has an immuno-compromised sibling, etc.

By NOT getting the vaccine, they are allowing the virus to spread within the community -- to a lot of people who can't afford to get.

So, I think of all the OTHER people I am protecting when I get my vaccine -- and that makes me feel really good about getting it, even if my arm does get sore and I feel a little achey afterwards.

llg

Having a child in daycare and having diabetes, heck yeah. Last year I got one and didn't get a cold or flu.

It is AWFUL to be a single/divorced Mom and have the flu. A six year old has no comprehension that anything should be different (Mommy taking her to school, Mommy fixing her breakfast, Mommy practicing violin with her, Mommy combing her hair) when Mommy is sick.

In fact, I better call now and get an appointment!!

I got my flu shot today. June55baby thanks for that information from the infectious disease M.D. I have been taking flu shots for several years and I too have noticed a real drop in the number of colds etc that I have each year.

I'll be sure to get my flu shot this year. I usually do get the vaccine, but the last couple of years I haven't, and when I don't get the shot, I get the flu. Two years ago it was just AWFUL. I missed 5 days of work, had to practically crawl to the doctor's to get an rx for decongestant. The shot seems to work for me!

Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Med-Surg.

Jode--Well, frankly, you "professsional" people in this field have lost your credibility.

When multitudes of people who get the flu vaccine report that they shortly thereafter came down with the flu, you say either: 1) you must have been exposed just before getting the shot, or 2) there are several strains of flu, so you must have come down with a strain against which the vaccine didn't protect.

Either way, you are "right" and the recpient's experience doesn't count--a catch 22 characteristic of people with closed minds. It reminds me of nothing so much as the Red Cross's knee-jerk reaction whenver any new blood-borne disease is brought to public attention (Hep B, C, HIV, West Nile)--immediatly they distribute a press release that says "There is no reason to worry. The blood supply is safe." This before any studies are done or any real thinking, for that matter, has been done.

By ignoring and discounting this consistent feedback, year after year, from people who get vaccinated, many with medical/nursing training, in favor of whatever theory seems to fit the conclusion at which you have already arrived, you simply point out that you could care less about facts, data, or possible problems, but care only about what you would like to believe.

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