Flu Shots anyone?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Somehow I am tasked this year with increasing our flu vaccination rates.

I used to be a flu shot hater. I never got the shot and I never got the flu. Then one year I got, Flu A, Flu B and the Swine flu. So I get the flu shot now, and haven't had the flu since.

I know all the arguments for NOT getting the vaccine. And I am pretty sure no amount of education will change peoples minds....as they have seen it all before. So, I am wondering WHAT would make those of you who decline the flu vaccine get one?

So far I am thinking about raffling off a paid day off work...for those who do get the vaccine and a "flu care package" for those who sign the declination. But really what would change your mind?

Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Here is the CDC position, as always they are RECOMMENDATIONS not requirements. CDC - Seasonal Influenza (Flu) - Vaccination of Specific Populations (ACIP)

Specializes in Emergency.
What does the CDC say? Listen we have had this same thread a million times.......

We are going to have to follow facility policy or find a new place to work....

Its just that plain....

I'm not asking people to voice opinions on the vaccine, or to debate if the vaccine is a good thing or not. I just want to know if there is anything that would encourage you to get the vaccine. :)

For the record, I am all for masking, mostly because of a patient death that occurred after a Health care worker transmitted the flu to them last year. Thankfully it did not occur at my hospital, but it easily could have.

Make it convenient, that will improve your numbers

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

When we put a "shot giver" on each shift and had coverage on weekends in every unit, we quadrupled our numbers. Who has time to run down to employee health and stand in line down there? We even did docs, pharmacists, secretaries, cleaning people, xray techs, anyone who came thru our unit we said, hey, need your shot?

And after I had H2N1 even with my vaccine and thought I was going to die, I will never miss a flu vaccine. That was the most miserable sick I have ever been...though I left my lung on the living room floor a few times!

Specializes in assisted living.

I know some that will get a flu shot if it is a single dose--without thimerosal. I am not sure how much more expensive those are or how many would be persuaded by that.

I used to decline the vaccine because of a reaction to one as a kid in 1976...(as walking out of clinic, sibling who also got shot, vomited and I was sick, too)... Many years later, a doctor convinced me it would benefit me to receive the flu vaccine. I did. (I wasn't in healthcare back then.) Nothing adverse happened. Since then, I have been regularly getting them. --I think you have to get people over the initial resistance. Maybe explaining the lower risk of the dead vaccine in the injections vs. the live intranasal vaccine. (I go for the injections.)

I think if you address people's reasons for not getting the vaccines and give them education and alternatives (like someone said a vaccine without thimerosol, etc.) that you will have better luck. I also think it helps to make it convenient to receive the vaccine. Finally, I like folks suggestions that you explain the costs of not getting the vaccine --both to patients the workers care for and to the workers themselves.

Now that I am in healthcare, I get the vaccine for myself and for my patients.

+ Add a Comment