Flu shots

[Aisha29]

The hospitals that my school assign us to for do clinicals at are making it an requirement that we receive the H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. I never had either and I never had the flu. I am really against getting the vaccines esp. the H1N1 because it is so new. This new flu emerged in April 2009, therefor I feel the vaccine have not been out long enough. This is just me and how I feel. Is this at every school?

[lina.561]

Ever heard of the Bilderburg Group? They are very powerful men who are trying to lead a one world government. They want to kill off 80 % of our population to have better control. I was watching this last night, They are now wanting to put poisons in our vaccines. This just shows to might actually be true. They are somehow responsible for putting Aspartame in our foods as well as our baby foods. Im not sure if all this is true. But they have secret meetings all the time. All men are from different parts of the world and are very powerful. Obama attended some of the meetings as well. go figure?!?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

My nursing program required us to receive the seasonal flu shot. If we did not receive the seasonal flu vaccination, we had to wear a mask during our entire clinical rotations. Since I opted to not be vaccinated, I chose to wear the mask at clinical.

[tokyoROSE, BSN, RN]

Ever heard of the Bilderburg Group? They are very powerful men who are trying to lead a one world government. They want to kill off 80 % of our population to have better control. I was watching this last night, They are now wanting to put poisons in our vaccines. This just shows to might actually be true. They are somehow responsible for putting Aspartame in our foods as well as our baby foods. Im not sure if all this is true. But they have secret meetings all the time. All men are from different parts of the world and are very powerful. Obama attended some of the meetings as well. go figure?!?

What does Obama have nothing to do with flu shots?

One of my professors actually sent this email to students amidst the H1N1 vaccine talk and I thought this fit with the discussion pretty well. (YES I know the student here talks about vaccine derived from monkeys, but I'm trying to get at the "professionalism" message.)

I have been thinking about this over the weekend, and just felt like I needed to comment. Last week, a student came to me with questions about the H1N1 vaccine. During our conversation, this student related that other students from our group were discussing how they had heard on a well-known conservative cable news channel that the vaccine was derived from the blood of green monkeys, and was contaminated with HIV.

OK. Here is what bothers me about this. First, to get all of your information from one source, and one slanted, biased, non-science based source is not something a professional nurse does. Second, we talked about evidence based practice. You are all going to be nurses; this means the public is counting on you to be knowledgeable, informed of the evidence and the science, and non-biased. They will also be counting on you to provide solid information to support sound health choices, like getting the H1N1 vaccine if you are in a high risk group.

So please, as future nurses, start using better, balanced sources of sound information, and avoid the temptation to spread less than reliable information, no matter where you are. If all you know is unreliable information, then just say "I don't know" or "I am unsure about what the evidence says on that".

[lina.561]

Okay Tokyo- your absolutely right! Sorry I guess I was just making a statement of how vaccines MIGHT be getting bad reactions, this Conspiracy Theory with Jesse James, it seemed like it could be true, they were very serious. I guess Im just gullible that way sometimes. According to the episode Obama attended one of their meetings, I didnt say he had anything to do with vaccines. SO I Will take that reply back sorry guys!

[murphyle, BSN, RN]

I was exceptionally lucky in that my nursing school got their hands on a shipment of H1N1 vaccine back in October when everyone was lined up around the block for it. We received an email from SON Administration which basically said "H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines are both available to nursing students, free of charge, at the student health clinic. On a strictly legal basis we can't force you, but if you want to continue in our program you'll get immunized." Sure enough, pretty much all of our clinical sites started requiring both H1N1 and seasonal for all providers, including students, about a month after that. The students who signed no-immunization waivers were largely unable to get clinical placements, the consequences of which you can probably ascertain for yourselves.

As for some of the discussion of vaccine fears and conspiracy theories I've read here, I have to say that I'd be extremely disappointed in a student who came to my lab espousing information of that kind without properly validated evidence to back it up. "I heard on TV that..." or "So-and-so on the Internet said..." does not constitute valid evidence. Likewise, one trial demonstrating major procedural flaws and since discredited by all but one of its authors - who himself had major conflicts of professional interest in publishing an anti-immunization paper - is not valid evidence.

There's far too much anecdotal and pseudo-scientific garbage in nursing already, and it doesn't befit a professional - who by definition ought to be free of such superstitions - to spread it further.