Forced to get flu shot or wear a mask

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Recently I heard our hospital will be forcing everyone to get a flu shot or they will have to wear a mask for their entire shift. I have had a reaction to it and usually just boost my immune system during flu season and this works well. I was told that even if we have had a reaction in the past and still don't get it, we wear a mask. This does not sit well with many of us at the hospital. Was wondering if others have experienced this and what they did.

Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..

Something I want to throw out there, and I'm pleased to see this has not come up yet:

If your desire is to say "no" to the flu shot and you find yourself with some tough choices to make, remain clam, please.

Do not get worked up and do something you will regret. I've known people who did and it did not end well for them. Wonder what I'm talking about yet?

Many people, enough that it's embarrassing actually, take a shortcut around the problem. They find a friend who gives the shots at a local clinic and get the receipt for having received the shot, but don't get the shot. People manning flu shot booths (the ones that crop up at Wal Mart and other locations every year) have been caught accepting fees to give receipts for shots that weren't given to people who want to dodge them.

Don't be foolish. Don't resort to this.

They can go after your license for it. It's fraud, you are falsifying documentation.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services define fraud as: The intentional deception or misrepresentation made by a person with the knowledge that the deception could result in some unauthorized benefit to himself or some other person.”

Falsifying documentation is high on the list of reasons for nurses losing their license. Turning in receipts for shots you didn't receive falls into this category.

Just don't.

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Specializes in Gerontology.

I had what I think was H1N1 when it was going around, I say think because I never dragged myself into ER to be tested.

I never want to be that sick again. My temp went up, I took Tylenol, it came down for about 2 hours, went back up, took Advil, went down for about 2 hours, went back up. And so forth, for about 3 days. I got SOB going from the couch to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. At one point, I was lying on then nice cold bathroom floor, asking for death. While the cat sat next to me and said please fill my bowl before you die. Thank you.

i hurt everywhere. The smallest thing left me SOB. I drank only tea and ate only toast.

it was weeks before I felt like myself again. For weeks I had this bitter taste in my mouth that effected my appetite. I was exhausted for weeks.

Never again.

i get the flu shot religiously now.

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It is important that a healthcare worker not spread flu to patients, but there is also a bigger reason that hospitals require flu vaccination.

Hospitals have a duty to their community and their employees.

The hospital has a duty to provide care when someone in their community has an accident, has a baby, needs chemo, etc. They will not be able to meet this duty to the community if a large portion of their workforce is out with the flu.

If a hospital is unable to meet the needs of the community because their employees are out with the flu, the news media will report this. The community could lose faith in that hospital. If your customer base no longer trusts you and starts getting their care elsewhere, employees will get laid off. The hospital will have failed in its duty to protect the financial interests of the hospital, so that it can continue to provide care to the community and provide employment to its employees.

If employees have to work dangerously understaffed because so many people employees are out with the flu, then the hospital has failed in its duty to provide a safe work environment for their employees and safe care for patient.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

I see usually about a dozen of GBS patients every flu season. Guess what? I work in LTACH which specializes on difficult vents/weans. BTW, the VERY wast majority of them were not vaccinated, got flu, and ended up paralyzed. Very few are those who got vaccine (usually the wrong one) and still got flu after that, and that disease precipitated GBS.

I do not even mention those who got hooked on vent after flu coming over COPD, chronic asthma, pulmonary hypertension, lungs which were recently cut/irradiated for cancer, chronic amiodarone, sarcoidosis, RA, etc.

The last thing I want to do with my life is to end up like that. I have asthma. I also had systemic reaction on flu shot once. So every year I do spend my time and money for an alternative of some sort, from live vaccine to intradermal shot to getting shot in ER with crash cart parked nearby. It kinda adds trouble but I do not want my child to ever say to anybody "I just wish Santa could make mom to SAY "Merry Christmas, honey bun" to me just one time". That's what we hear a lot around Christmas when kids are visiting, and it is heartbreaking.

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Something I want to throw out there, and I'm pleased to see this has not come up yet:

If your desire is to say "no" to the flu shot and you find yourself with some tough choices to make, remain clam, please.

Do not get worked up and do something you will regret. I've known people who did and it did not end well for them. Wonder what I'm talking about yet?

Many people, enough that it's embarrassing actually, take a shortcut around the problem. They find a friend who gives the shots at a local clinic and get the receipt for having received the shot, but don't get the shot. People manning flu shot booths (the ones that crop up at Wal Mart and other locations every year) have been caught accepting fees to give receipts for shots that weren't given to people who want to dodge them.

Don't be foolish. Don't resort to this.

They can go after your license for it. It's fraud, you are falsifying documentation.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services define fraud as: The intentional deception or misrepresentation made by a person with the knowledge that the deception could result in some unauthorized benefit to himself or some other person.”

Falsifying documentation is high on the list of reasons for nurses losing their license. Turning in receipts for shots you didn't receive falls into this category.

Just don't.

I would have never thought of this, but now that you mention it. :sneaky:

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It is mandatory at the hospital where I work. I'm not sure what they do if someone refuses, I haven't known anyone that refused the vaccine.

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Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
I would have never thought of this, but now that you mention it. :sneaky:

Ugh :specs:

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Specializes in PCCN.

no shot=mask, no option.

I need a job, so I get it.

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The only thing I make sure of is that I get the actual shot and not the flu mist. In boot camp they gave us the mist and I went from perfectly healthy to want to crawl into a cave and die sick in less than 48 hours...plus with all the stress of boot camp and all the physical activity the illness didn't go away for about 6 weeks. Never again will I willingly inhale live flu virus.

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You're like...3rd.

CL and that horse AV person are 1 and 2.

No, no . . . First! :up: And awesome.

It seems awfully early for the annual flu shot thread however it still seems like summer to me and October is a month away so yeah, it is time for the flu shot.

I'm getting the flu shot like I do every year and so is my 15 year old son and my 63 year old husband.

No big deal. Much better than the actual flu.

As to FluMist . . . right now pediatricians are not recommending it because it isn't as effective as a regular (dead virus) flu shot. If someone got really sick with FluMist, they had probably already been exposed to the flu before or right after getting immunized.

FluMist is a live attenuated influenza vaccine. Though the viruses are live, they have been weakened (attenuated, in medical terms) and work by stimulating the immune system. By contrast, the flu shot is an inactivated influenza vaccine.

Pediatricians update flu vaccine guidelines to remove FluMist - CNN.com

No FluMist this year; flu shots only option for kids – The Mercury News

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
I thought I was the favorite character :(

Awww...of course you are!

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Awww...of course you are!

Yeah, like I said . . . Numero Uno! :up:

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