by brian Staff

Updated Oct 02, 2009 at 10:36 AM by brian

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

Here are some related Discussions and Links:

• "Mandatory Flu Shots Hit Resistance" (currently over 105 comments)
• Survey: 87% favor mandatory health worker H1N1 shots ) (public opinion)
  
• Pandemic Flu Forum

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory to Healthcare Professionals?

Would you take an AID/HIV vaccination that came out yesterday or would you wait and see how it affected other people?

I am all for keeping patients safe...but this N1H1 thing has not even come out yet...my father in law bought a Nissan Titian the first year they came out and it had all kinds of problems (best friend started selling cars right out of high school, now does accounting and manages an entire Lithia Dodge, says never to buy the first year a car/truck comes out)...I bought my Window Vista when it first came out had some problems...still does, and they are finally saying the updated Vista models that are now hitting the floor have all the "kinks worked out" (bro in law is a computer nerd, says you never buy a computer the first year it comes out).

We already have a nursing and physician shortage. Are they planning for what is going to happen when all the health care workers are out because of all the "kinks" that are still being worked out with the N1H1? (which was required of them to take in order to work...got bills to pay? Want to keep your job? All you have to do it take this new vaccine that has not even hit the market and only took a few months to create...never mind it takes YEARS for most drugs to be created and tested...) Just seems scary that something that is injected into us, that they have not even finished making, is required for us to take. Is this America? Dorthy I don't think we are in Kansas anymore.

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

No, I have the right to be a skeptic.

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

No one, not even my employer, has the right to tell me what to put into my body. PERIOD.

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

Absolutely not.
If anything, the paranoid public who come to the hospital sneezing and coughing all over us need mandatory vaccinations.
(Actually I don't believe in mandatory vaccinations for anyone but if you're going to go there....)

It reminds me of the days when HIV was newer and everyone was worried about contracting it from their healthcare professionals, rather than the reality of it more likely being the other way around.

I'm sorry but I've spent most of my adult life in nursing and that alone entitles me to not be a guinea pig for this vaccination.

If people are so worried about it, then they need to put themselves and their own children first in line to receive this vaccination rather than watch me receive it and "see what happens".

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

Originally Posted by jessiern

No one, not even my employer, has the right to tell me what to put into my body. PERIOD.

So, you refuse your yearly TB test too?

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

I really can't answer the poll as stated. I would support giving workers a choice between the vaccine or wearing a mask. Hospitals and healthcare workers have a responsibility to protect our patients. I would never support holding someone down and forcing an injection into them, which is what many people would like you to think is happening. It is a simple choice: protect your patients by method A or method B.

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

I think al of our government officials should get it first along with their families. Let's see how many of them would refuse.

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

No I do not get yearly TB tests, I am allergic to them after all these years in nursing. If they promise me, which they can't, that I won't have an allergic reaction then maybe. But to make it mandatory, no way, I will retire first.

Re: Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

Originally Posted by Purple_Scrubs

So, you refuse your yearly TB test too?

Actually, I do. I fill out a yearly signs and symptoms sheet each year. I had an allergic reaction to the "harmless" medication the first year I took it.