Conestoga RPN Students: Have any of you successfully refused the flu shot?

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Hello,

I have been accepted to Conestoga College's RPN September 2016 program and the only thing I am concerned about is being forced to take the flu shot.

Has anyone on here refused, or know of someone who did and was still able to continue in the program and placements?

Thanks so much in advance for your help,

Ally

Specializes in Public Health.
Eru lluvatar, I agree with you. I will contact someone at the College directly when the time comes, but thought I'd post here first to see if anyone had any experience with it. I can't believe that a person would be denied entry to the program over a vaccine that has a very questionable and varied effectiveness rate....not to mention that they do not protect against all strains, and that anyone working in and amongst other people are all at risk of catching something. There are two very contrasting and valid sides to the flu shot debate, and I am not looking for a debate here, but I think we do need to be aware of our rights as patients and workers alike, which some of us sometimes are all at once.

Not trying to start a debate, just sharing my experience as a current student of nearly 5 years at Conestoga :)

I would urge you to contact them immediately to find out if they will accept your documented medical reason, that way you can arrange accordingly!

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I appreciate all of your input xokw. I have already written to the college so that this can be cleared up, and steps taken to make sure all is well next fall. Thanks so much for all of your help. Your comments and responses are always very informative! :)

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Specializes in Public Health.
I appreciate all of your input xokw. I have already written to the college so that this can be cleared up, and steps taken to make sure all is well next fall. Thanks so much for all of your help. Your comments and responses are always very informative! :)

No problem! I don't agree with mandatory flu vaccines either, this was actually my first year getting my flu shot :|

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Ugh....hopefully all will be well! I'm curious...have many been off sick? Had you been sick in past years? (I have not been, and so have left well enough alone. I've worked in schools, where you can be certain that the majority are not washing their hands, and bugs abound!, and in hospice and have been just as, if not healthier than those around me.) I think a lot has to be said for eating healthily, getting proper rest etc....

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Specializes in Public Health.
Ugh....hopefully all will be well! I'm curious...have many been off sick? Had you been sick in past years? (I have not been, and so have left well enough alone. I've worked in schools, where you can be certain that the majority are not washing their hands, and bugs abound!, and in hospice and have been just as, if not healthier than those around me.) I think a lot has to be said for eating healthily, getting proper rest etc....

I get a cold or two every year, but I don't think I've had the actual flu in years. The amount of students off sick around mid terms and exams skyrockets (high stress and minimum sleep therefore obviously lower immunity), and that is pretty much a solid pattern every semester.

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Absolutely....even with the flu shot....it kind of rests my case all by itself...it's very surprising that it has been pushed so severely. Anyhow, I appreciate your input and we'll see how it goes. Things tend to change, become apparent, or die down with time...

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Start making a plan B, in case you are unsuccessful in your attempt to refuse the flu shot.

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It has to do with liability. The school is just not willing to take on students and place them in hospitals around sick patients if the student is not vaccinated, which could result in illness for both the student but with the main concern being for the patient. It isn't a legal matter because it isn't as if someone is coming to your house telling you you must be vaccinated, they are saying if YOU choose to attend OUR school, you must be able to abide by our policies. This is what was told to us when the flu vaccine became mandatory at Conestoga this winter.

This would be fine if you said you didnt wanted to get vaccinated because whatever reason. But if the flu vaccine can kill or harm you in any way, it is discriminatory to deny a student admission because of it. I cant pull out of my hat exactly what law would apply, but I am sure there are federal laws that would prohibit this kind of discrimination. The flu vaccine is not a 100% effective in preventing the flu, heck there has been occasions in which they predicted the wrong strain which pretty much rendered the vaccine useless.

It is mandatory in the sense of you cant use religious or personal beliefs as a excuse to avoid getting it. But would you think of a hospital that would fire a nurse because a nurse wont take the vaccine because it can harm them; thats a multimillion lawsuit waiting to happen.

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Not illegal in any way whatsoever, it's a voluntary choice to attend this school with that policy, no one is forcing anything, the school merely says that if you want to attend here, these are the policies (this is what they told us as many questioned the policy change this year).

Again, this is just what is being passed down to us from the dean of nursing and practicum services, so I definitely suggest contacting PS directly and inquiring. I would love to know what they say because I've never personally inquired and am certainly curious as I question the legalities of it myself regardless of the brief description they gave us students.

This would be fine if you said you didnt wanted to get vaccinated because whatever reason. But if the flu vaccine can kill or harm you in any way, it is discriminatory to deny a student admission because of it. I cant pull out of my hat exactly what law would apply, but I am sure there are federal laws that would prohibit this kind of discrimination. The flu vaccine is not a 100% effective in preventing the flu, heck there has been occasions in which they predicted the wrong strain which pretty much rendered the vaccine useless.

It is mandatory in the sense of you cant use religious or personal beliefs as a excuse to avoid getting it. But would you think of a hospital that would fire a nurse because a nurse wont take the vaccine because it can harm them; thats a multimillion lawsuit waiting to happen.

It is voluntary to attend but if you choose to do so, a medical reason should not constrain you from doing so unless it didnt let you perform the tasks expected from you. This would be saying like sorry you cant attend this school because you have cancer or an immune condition, and well you cant get the vaccines required... So well f*** you pretty much.

My school is very anal about vaccines but if you have a valid medical reason they make something called an exemption, lol.

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Eru lluvatar, I agree with you. I will contact someone at the College directly when the time comes, but thought I'd post here first to see if anyone had any experience with it. I can't believe that a person would be denied entry to the program over a vaccine that has a very questionable and varied effectiveness rate....not to mention that they do not protect against all strains, and that anyone working in and amongst other people are all at risk of catching something. There are two very contrasting and valid sides to the flu shot debate, and I am not looking for a debate here, but I think we do need to be aware of our rights as patients and workers alike, which some of us sometimes are all at once.

I concur with your point, and specially like you say the effectiveness of the vaccine is spotty at best. Keep in mind that this may be an uphill battle so I would look into alternatives. Most probably they already have their minds set into stone and wont be dissuaded by a normal human rational argument, only by a court order lol.

Keep on applying around, and try to find a school with less draconian rules. Exemptions exist for a reason, and I am sure that 1 or a couple of students that cant get vaccinated for medical reasons wont be the bane of patients like they apparently want to make it seem.

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Specializes in Public Health.
This would be fine if you said you didnt wanted to get vaccinated because whatever reason. But if the flu vaccine can kill or harm you in any way, it is discriminatory to deny a student admission because of it. I cant pull out of my hat exactly what law would apply, but I am sure there are federal laws that would prohibit this kind of discrimination. The flu vaccine is not a 100% effective in preventing the flu, heck there has been occasions in which they predicted the wrong strain which pretty much rendered the vaccine useless.

It is mandatory in the sense of you cant use religious or personal beliefs as a excuse to avoid getting it. But would you think of a hospital that would fire a nurse because a nurse wont take the vaccine because it can harm them; thats a multimillion lawsuit waiting to happen.

It is voluntary to attend but if you choose to do so, a medical reason should not constrain you from doing so unless it didnt let you perform the tasks expected from you. This would be saying like sorry you cant attend this school because you have cancer or an immune condition, and well you cant get the vaccines required... So well f*** you pretty much.

My school is very anal about vaccines but if you have a valid medical reason they make something called an exemption, lol.

I'm sorry, but I'm not starting a debate with you. I just know how strict they are and the post was asking if anyone knew the answer to this question and I advised based on what we were told as current students less than two months ago.

You are certainly allowed your personal beliefs but the school doesn't really care, quite honestly. They get 1000 applicants for every 100 spots, so if you aren't happy, they have more than enough students who are willing to fill the spots :)

They budge on nothing, including other vaccines such as MMR, hep B, etc.

All I did was answer the question asked, I'm not providing my own personal opinions regarding this matter, so please stop trying to start a fight. I'm sharing the facts as a current student who is aware of the policies (and who confirmed this today by quickly stopping by practicum services between classes) and you can easily have the answer given to you by the school themselves if that would make you feel better, Eru.

Here is an email received from practicum services, it was sent to all placement teachers and forwarded to students who were non-compliant (including myself who had not yet received my flu shot as I tried to push the issue). All non-compliant students were suspended from placement and permitted to return once compliant, no exceptions.

Now, I've officially given all of the information I possibly can on this topic, so I will respectfully bow out :) Personal values and beliefs are fine and dandy, but at the end of the day it is up to the school what their policies are and who they choose to permit.

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I'm sorry, but I'm not starting a debate with you. I just know how strict they are and the post was asking if anyone knew the answer to this question and I advised based on what we were told as current students less than two months ago.

You are certainly allowed your personal beliefs but the school doesn't really care, quite honestly. They get 1000 applicants for every 100 spots, so if you aren't happy, they have more than enough students who are willing to fill the spots :)

They budge on nothing, including other vaccines such as MMR, hep B, etc.

All I did was answer the question asked, I'm not providing my own personal opinions regarding this matter, so please stop trying to start a fight. I'm sharing the facts as a current student who is aware of the policies (and who confirmed this today by quickly stopping by practicum services between classes) and you can easily have the answer given to you by the school themselves if that would make you feel better, Eru.

Here is an email received from practicum services, it was sent to all placement teachers and forwarded to students who were non-compliant (including myself who had not yet received my flu shot as I tried to push the issue). All non-compliant students were suspended from placement and permitted to return once compliant, no exceptions. [ATTACH]21296[/ATTACH][ATTACH]21297[/ATTACH]

Now, I've officially given all of the information I possibly can on this topic, so I will respectfully bow out :) Personal values and beliefs are fine and dandy, but at the end of the day it is up to the school what their policies are and who they choose to permit.

You know stating an opinion its not starting a fight? You gave facts about the school, I gave my opinion on the possible illegality of what the school its doing. I never said yeah ignore the facts and go find a lawyer.

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