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

pollux, RN · Oct 1, 2002

YES!!!! working with immunocompromised pts gives me no option but to get it. I would not want them to take any risk because of me.... Love them too much!!!

AlaskanRN · Oct 2, 2002

I recieved my flu shot at work today. I have been getting them for quite a few years now, and like some of the others who have posted, I seldom even come down with a cold.

In most instances, I am as noncompliant as any other health care professional...I seldom go to the doctor, can't remember the last time I took antibiotics, and generally let my body heal itself.

But in regards to the flu shot...there were quite a few cases of the flu that came through our ER last year. I NEVER want to be sick like the pts that tested positive for H. Influenza.

I hope the vaccinated and unvaccinated stay well this flu season...:)

AlaskanRN · Oct 2, 2002

misti_z

I looked on the info sheet I was given when I got my vaccine today...it states:

You may take the vaccine if you are at least 14 weeks pregnant

Riseupandnurse · Oct 2, 2002

I used to get sick after the flu shot, like clockwork. I remember the last time I took it the regular way, walking out of the hospital where the supervisor had given it to me. By the time I had driven home, about a mile away, I was sick. I always stayed sick for a day or two, so I stopped getting flu shots for 2 years. Now I get them again, but only a half a dose at a time. The employee health nurse at the hospital gives me half a dose, then a week later she gives me the other half. I've been doing this for 3 years, and I don't get sick, and don't get the flu either. I remember especially that I didn't get the flu 2 years ago, even though all the nurses around me on my floor were dropping like flies, and most of them had gotten their flu shots, but the "regular" way. This is the way to go!! :cool:

Dr. Kate, BSN, RN · Oct 2, 2002

Sure will be taking that shot when they offer it here. I've taken it for some years now and gotten through the season with only minor problems. I also think it helps to have had some of the nastier strains of flu that have come down the road over the years.

knapejc · Oct 2, 2002

I not only take the vaccine, I administer it for the VNA at local retail clinics. I know many nurses who still confuse true flu with having a bad cold or sinus infection. Those aren't nice either, but the flu can be prevented and SHOULD be. If you work with a population of patients for whom the shot is recommended, set a good example and learn enough to tell everyone why it is important, when to get it, who should NOT get it, what to expect, and so on. In many patients with chronic conditions or poor immune systems, flu can kill. Do your part to see that it doesn't!

Thanks for the soapbox friends! Stay healthy.

flaerman · Oct 3, 2002

Yes I get flu vaccine every year, it's good protection for me as I work in the ER and see a whole of cases when flu season arrives. Had a reaction way back when Iwas 18 but not in the last 29 years have I had a problem--Paul

sunnygirl272 · Oct 3, 2002

i do get the vaccine most years...i have had the flu, once...for real, had viral cultures done...that was a year that i had had the vaccine...but it was the year they goofed and the one that hit far&hard here was not one of the ones they anticipated to hit far&wide, so it was not included in that years vaccine...

gae my first vaccine of theyear today...to my 103 yr old lady...some may say it's too early..we start clinics friday..this early we leave it up to the docs and the clients whether they want it now or wait...

jode · Oct 3, 2002

knapejc,

Well said and nicely stated. Stay well.

Roland · Oct 3, 2002

that are mandatory for nurses. Also, if Small Pox becomes mandated I will take the shot, but only because it IS mandated not because I believe that it is the right thing to DO! Consider, that we know based upon statistics from the CDC that at least an estimated five people per million will die from the Small Pox vaccine, and up to 30 per million will suffer long term health consequences. Now it may prevent millions of deaths, OR it may be protecting against a threat which never materializes. Even if we are subject to a Small Pox attack it is LIKELY that the version introduced will be a serotype to which current immunizations are ineffective. IF the ethical question were restated to this scenario "we will execute 200 hundred people to maybe save two million" how many would consider this acceptible? Now its true that we give drugs all the time that can kill or injure SOME people. However, this is to treat EXISTING illness not prevent one which has not, and may never appear.

Doctors still take an oath to "first do no harm". I would submit that much vaccination directly contradicts this tenet of the Hippocratic oath. We are doing nothing short of sacrificing the lives and or health of the few to save the many. Such an action may be logical, but it is also morally questionable. That vaccines SOMETIMES kill and injure is not open to debate. You can confirm this for yourself by reviewing the CDC's public national adverse reactions reporting database. We still only understand a fraction of what makes the immune system "tick". We may not learn the consequences of this decision to play God for many years. No database in existence even attempts track the possible LONG TERM consequences of vaccinations. Diseases such as MS and Parkinson's, and Guillene Barr syndrome MAY have an etiological basis at least partially attributable to vaccination. By the way if I am FORCED to take a vaccination by my employer (or in my case my nursing school) and I subsequently have an adverse reaction are they going to be financially liable? After all every parent must sign such a waiver before a Dr will administer a vaccination to their child. Furthermore, if I am forced to sign such a waiver (under duress of losing my job) such a waiver is in essence worthless.

All vaccination should be VOLUNTARY with the risks fully disclosed.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Oct 3, 2002

Howdy yall

from deep in the heat of texas

Nope. I never had a flu shot in all these years and I work the ER. I take my vitamins, my fluids, particu;arly coffee, and golf every chance I get. I usually dont get sick per se. I break bones yes. I had a MI yes. But I usually dont get sick.

doo wah ditty

knapejc · Oct 3, 2002

Roland, I tend to agree with your thoughts about the smallpox vaccine. Using a vaccine which, as you point out, is known to be lethal on occasion, against a threat which may not even exist is certainly reason to question the ethics of such an immunization campaign. But most of the other vaccines, although adverse reactions do occur, are certainly responsible for saving lives and the quality of life for millions of people every year. I am old enough that I am among the survivors of polio. . . one of the luckier ones. Only now am I beginning to notice some of the post-polio sequelae that this virus caused. If you want to see what good old flu can really do, read about the pandemic of 1918. And as a peds nurse, I have personally seen what something like chickenpox can do at its worst . . . lost a beautiful sickle cell child in one instance.

Your other point about the state of our knowledge re the immune system is also well taken, however, As a lupus patient, I know that there is a tremendous lot to learn. But my final word would be, get a flu shot. Like most things in life, there is a minor risk as well as nuisance, but the benefit is worth it. (Kind of like today's airline travel?????) Stay healthy and good luck in school.