Flu shots as a student anyone?

rubato, ASN, RN · Sep 11, 2013

Flu shots are required for my program since many of the local hospitals require it in order to provide care so my school instituted a blanket policy that lumps flu shots in with hep b, tdap and all the other vaccines that are required upon admission. I got my first flu shot about a year ago when I began nursing school. Prior to that I never got them because I was rarely ill and if I did catch a slight sniffle it would usually subside in a few days and not interfere with my life. Since I got the flu shot in November '12 I have been sick at least half a dozen times. I even got sick in early summer which was odd. I'm not saying that there was a correlation between the flu shot and my illnesses but it sure makes me wonder if my immunity has been affected in some way by it.
With all of that being said, I will suck it up and deal with it since it's either get a flu shot or not be in the program and possibly not get a job in the future. I do agree with OP about not wanting to put junk in my body. I'm a terrible patient and I have to be darn near dying to go to the doctor for anything other than a yearly physical.

Unfortunately, it probably has a lot more to do with the stress of nursing school and being exposed to sick patients.

SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN · Sep 11, 2013

I went to the same school as christina, and yes, got my flu shot for school. Didn't get sick though, thank goodness! No one else in my family gets the flu shot. My son did get the flu this year but my hubby or daughter didn't, so YAY I guess. And when I ever find a job I will most likely get a flu shot because I don't really want to have to wear a mask all the time.

green34 · Sep 11, 2013

Having been exposed to the flu many times last winter when I was in triage before I remembered to throw a mask on, I will say I will be getting the shot again as it is free through work.

One of the clinical sites require it now but they haven't stated what date they will require it by. My hospital system has not said when they will require it either. If you choose not to get it, you can wear a n-95 respirator and granted the duck bill ones may be nicer than the one that looks like painter stuff, it is just easier getting the flu shot.

I had mine last year because work gave it to me for free. Now I am glad my job gives it to me for free. After seeing how many people actually had the flu last year, I'm glad. We were hit several weeks fairly bad.

If I have kids, they will get the shots.

Also, seeing some of the people who had the flu who came in multiple times because they didn't the shot and they didn't meet criteria for tamiflu, I am more than happy to have a little sniffles or arm pain with the flu shot then to be out of school for an entire week and maybe be forced to drop the class (we miss more than 1 clinical, we fail or drop the class).

springchick1, ADN, RN · Sep 11, 2013

It has been maybe six yrs since my family of four got a flu shot. Sick maybe three times with the flu combined. Two boys are 12, 13 now.
Well we are now a family of five this year with a 10 month old girl. So the fact that myself, hubby and two boys will be in a school setting I want us including baby to get a flu vac. bc I worry of her immune system. She is too young to fight it if she got it.
Funny thing is me (medical field chick) don't like the concept of the vaccine. I don't believe it is effective. Just putting junk in the body. I don't even like Tylenol!
Soooooo, my question...is anyone getting it this winter? I will do it just don't want to.

Your post confuses me. First, you say that you want everyone in your family to get a flu shot. That's fine. I get the flu shot every single year. But then you go and say you don't like the concept of vaccines and think you are just putting junk in your body. Why would you vaccinate your family if you feel like it is just junk?

morte, LPN, LVN · Sep 11, 2013

did anyone read Green's link? Besides me.

EBP, were is the EVIDENCE?

Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2013

I had H1N1 when it was going around I never want to be that sick again!

So I will get the flu shot

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2013

did anyone read Green's link? Besides me.
EBP, were is the EVIDENCE?

Apparently not, but good on ya, Morte.

morte, LPN, LVN · Sep 11, 2013

Apparently not, but good on ya, Morte.

Yeah, can't be causing the PTB to look bad... Gary Marshall ring a bell?

Brilton · Sep 11, 2013

Your concern should not be how often YOU get sick, but how often do you make your (probably already immunocompromised) patients sick by not getting your flu vaccination.

MsPebbles · Sep 11, 2013

An excerpt from the article referenced by Grntea:

In 2004, for example, vaccine production fell behind, causing a 40 percent drop in immunization rates. Yet mortality did not rise. In addition, vaccine "mismatches" occurred in 1968 and 1997: in both years, the vaccine that had been produced in the summer protected against one set of viruses, but come winter, a different set was circulating. In effect, nobody was vaccinated. Yet death rates from all causes, including flu and the various illnesses it can exacerbate, did not budge. Sumit Majumdar, a physician and researcher at the University of Alberta, in Canada, offers another historical observation: rising rates of vaccination of the elderly over the past two decades have not coincided with a lower overall mortality rate. In 1989, only 15 percent of people over age 65 in the U.S. and Canada were vaccinated against flu. Today, more than 65 percent are immunized. Yet death rates among the elderly during flu season have increased rather than decreased.

Food for thought?

lub dub · Sep 11, 2013

vaccines do not, in fact, decrease excess mortality in what are traditionally called vulnerable populations. But they make a boatload of money for their manufacturers anyway.

I get a flu shot every year not because I think the flu might kill me, but because I think it might make me very very sick. And nearly every medication that anyone takes makes "a boatload of money for their manufacturers".

yupthischickanurse · Sep 11, 2013

Some responses are not worth feedback.

Some just live life with attitude lol smh