Hi everybody, I need your advice & opinions please :)
My school has obtained a "limited number" of the H1N1 vaccines, specifically for the nursing students. They will be available one day this week only. We are told that at least one clinical agency is requiring any students/staff giving direct patient care to have had the H1N1 vaccine.
I had been holding off on it, because I felt it was rushed out this season, so I really wasn't planning on getting it. However, if we do not get vaccinated, and end up at a hospital that does require it, we will be dismissed from clinical and thereby fail the course.
Should I just get the vaccine? Has anyone been in a similar situation? Or better yet, has anyone been thinking of not getting the vaccine, but heard something/saw something that changed your mind?
I guess I need reassurance on getting vaccine, for the sake of passing clinical.
What frustrates me is the continuing widespread rumors that prevent people from getting vaccinated. Take a look at my post in the Pandemic Flu Forum about the number of children who aren't getting vaccinated.
After attending countless flu clinics I can't begin to describe all of the stories I've heard from different people about why they won't get immunized. I've heard stories of parents keeping their kids home on vaccination day in fear that their child will get sick with H1N1 just because the mist is being given at the school.
My favorite rumor is that the H1N1 vaccine is an attempt by the government at mind control.
I agree with you Juli. The rumors are awful. I heard someone mention that they thought the government would sterilize people through the vaccine. Its that hysteria that causes fear and mistrust in the general public. You have to remember that some level of concern is valid. Look at what happened with Swine Flu Vaccines in 1976: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-1007.htm
I think my biggest frustration is health care workers playing roulette with patient's lives. I'm a new nursing student, but in my first semester of clinical, I saw a physician come in to a patient's room who was on protective isolation due to severe ALL. The physician had no gloves and used his scope with no sanitizer before or after use. Its the nosocomial infections that really get our patients. The H1N1 Flumist stats cite that only site a small percentage of people become infected from viral shedding. But most likely, a great portion of that small percentage of people who are infected are patients we work with in the hospital setting every day. That's why I'm so passionate about this topic. I have a loved one in the hospital right now after a double nephrectomy due to kidney cancer and I can't wait for him to get out so that he's no longer exposed to all of the mess in the hospital. H1N1 is the last thing he needs right now...
i am only volunteering at a hospital and they made me get both vaccines or wear a mask throughout flu season and i would not be allowed to work with kids because it would scare them. so i got it although i didn't want to. i've never had the flu and i don't like taking any kind of medicine if it's not necessary. can't even tell you the last time i had an aspirin- certainly not this year. but i got the vaccines because of how important this is to me.
as for the gbs concern, just look at the numbers: 40 million got the vax in '76, 500 got gbs. it's quite unlikely related to the vaccine.
I received the nasal mist at school about a month ago. It was not required after a stay was put on the mandate in NYS. I was going to get it anyways. We were also advised to get it just in case the stay was lifted and all of sudden we were scrambling to get it. My 20 year old also got the nasal mist, while my 16 year old and 11 year old had the vaccine. I had a few minor aches and pains - kind of like I was coming down with something, but that was it. My kids said they didn't feel anything.
I guess you will have to decide how bad you want to be a nurse this year. Because unless you can work something out with the dean, you may be stuck getting it or failing. Either that or you could withdraw and rejoin next year in hopes the vaccine won't be required.
I forgot to add...from the people that I know that got it (fellow students, family members, friends, etc.) some had headaches, some had a little gi upset and a few had some aches and pains. I haven't heard of any bad reactions from the local school or from the CC. Hope that helps a bit.
Those side effects don't sound terrible, but it just seems like bad timing .. finals begin Friday and the "clinic" is during Final-Review hours (last class before exams). Great planning on their part
And my PCP does not have any to give out, and I have been very unsuccessful in finding a "minute clinic" in my area, so I guess I have to suck it up and get one through school.
Hi everybody, I need your advice & opinions please :)
My school has obtained a "limited number" of the H1N1 vaccines, specifically for the nursing students. They will be available one day this week only. We are told that at least one clinical agency is requiring any students/staff giving direct patient care to have had the H1N1 vaccine.
I had been holding off on it, because I felt it was rushed out this season, so I really wasn't planning on getting it. However, if we do not get vaccinated, and end up at a hospital that does require it, we will be dismissed from clinical and thereby fail the course.
Should I just get the vaccine? Has anyone been in a similar situation? Or better yet, has anyone been thinking of not getting the vaccine, but heard something/saw something that changed your mind?
I guess I need reassurance on getting vaccine, for the sake of passing clinical.
Thanks!
The hospital that I had clinicals at required that we have the vaccination this semester. I was at first under the impression that it would be the injection but it wound up being the nasal mist. I took the vaccination and had no reactions at all. In my situation, I took it to remain in clinical. I would go ahead and take it (but I am known to have bad luck and would be placed at the facility that wants it if I didn't take it).
Our school did give us the option to opt out from the H1N1 vax, but we were informed that many hospitals and clinics in the area will not allow those students to come to the clinical site if a "break out" occured in their facility. So the student would miss out on the clinical experience and even though they didn't directly say it, I think it must be implied that you can't pass the semester if you don't go to clinical. I didn't originally want to get the vaccine myself, but decided I didn't want to take the chance of missing clinicals so I opted for the injection. Happy to report that I had NO side effects and felt competely fine.
I wouldn't get it. I would voice your concerns with the nursing dept. head and see if you can be placed at a clinical site that isn't "requiring" it. These "mandates" are absolutely ridiculous! :/
I got it, with no issues (not surprising, it's just a flu shot with one strain of--the 2009 novel H1N1 instead of 3 strains that include one of the various H1N1's out there).
My clinical site required it.....I had no problem complying and protecting my patients.
This is a safe, FDA approved vaccine. This is the same exact vaccine as the flu shot which has been around for a very long time. The H1N1 vaccine and the swine flu vaccine from the 70's have nothing in common (not even the same strain of virus)...even so, the problem with the Swine Flu vaccine back in the 70's was that there was a contaminant in some of the vaccines (which, God forbid, could happen to any kind of vaccine).....we have learned A LOT about vaccine production since then.
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ybq2008
177 Posts
I agree with you Juli. The rumors are awful. I heard someone mention that they thought the government would sterilize people through the vaccine. Its that hysteria that causes fear and mistrust in the general public. You have to remember that some level of concern is valid. Look at what happened with Swine Flu Vaccines in 1976: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-1007.htm
I think my biggest frustration is health care workers playing roulette with patient's lives. I'm a new nursing student, but in my first semester of clinical, I saw a physician come in to a patient's room who was on protective isolation due to severe ALL. The physician had no gloves and used his scope with no sanitizer before or after use. Its the nosocomial infections that really get our patients. The H1N1 Flumist stats cite that only site a small percentage of people become infected from viral shedding. But most likely, a great portion of that small percentage of people who are infected are patients we work with in the hospital setting every day. That's why I'm so passionate about this topic. I have a loved one in the hospital right now after a double nephrectomy due to kidney cancer and I can't wait for him to get out so that he's no longer exposed to all of the mess in the hospital. H1N1 is the last thing he needs right now...