How did you get out of getting the Flu shot?

Nurses COVID

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Hi, I have gotten the flu shot every year since becoming a nurse seven years ago. I have decided I do not want to take it anymore for reasons I will not get into right now. My facility pushes getting it very strongly but it is not mandatory. I know that coworkers are able to not take it due to religious reasons as one example. What are some other examples I could use without telling a lie. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Ask what exemptions there are and try to purse one of those. Here in NY if you don't get it you have to wear a mask now while working during the entire flu season. basically to punish you for not getting it.

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I'm amazed at how a job can force you to put something in your body that if you don't want to. What has this world come to?

The job can't force you to. The employer can, however, make it a condition of employment and, if people don't like that, they can quit as you noted later in your post.

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I'm amazed at how a job can force you to put something in your body that if you don't want to. What has this world come to? What happened to just washing your hands and covering your mouth when you cough sneeze, etc? I've never gotten the flu shot I'm my life. And I wish someone would threaten me of my job. I'd just quit. No sweat off my back. I know some people can't afford to do that though which makes it more sad because employers now some people just can't afford to quit.[/quote']

It's for the patients. If you want to quit, go ahead. Nursing school requires it too. Idk how you'd go around that.

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It's for the patients. If you want to quit go ahead. Nursing school requires it too. Idk how you'd go around that.[/quote'] Well I did and I graduate in 7 weeks. I told them I wasn't getting it. Point blank. :) I asked to see something In Writing that we would be out of the program for not getting one. Haven't seen anything in black and white yet. *shrug* As for an employer, nope. Never got one either. Been in healthcare for 11 years. Told them I wasn't getting one and that was the end of it. I'm all for patients, but I'm for my health as well. If I say I don't want something injected Into my body, i don't see that as a bad thing. I come first. I know we're supposed to be in the mode of 'being for your patients' but I come first. If I'm sick I simply stay home.
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Well I did and I graduate in 7 weeks. I told them I wasn't getting it. Point blank. :) I asked to see something In Writing that we would be out of the program for not getting one. Haven't seen anything in black and white yet. *shrug* As for an employer nope. Never got one either. Been in healthcare for 11 years. Told them I wasn't getting one and that was the end of it. I'm all for patients, but I'm for my health as well. If I say I don't want something injected Into my body, i don't see that as a bad thing. I come first. I know we're supposed to be in the mode of 'being for your patients' but I come first. If I'm sick I simply stay home.[/quote']

Well as of right now idk if you plan on coming to BC for your RN but it is mandatory. Either you get it or you withdraw from clinical. Maybe they let you slide in LPN school since they aren't that strict to begin with but they don't play those games in RN school. Last week I got my flu shot because I was told by dean AND got a text from my instructor stating: "**** you need to turn in documentation of flu shot or you will not be allowed to continue clinical." It's not a big deal. The shot won't kill you.

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Well as of right now idk if you plan on coming to BC for your RN but it is mandatory. Either you get it or you withdraw from clinical. Maybe they let you slide in LPN school since they aren't that strict to begin with but they don't play those games in RN school. Last week I got my flu shot because I was told by dean AND got a text from my instructor stating: "**** you need to turn in documentation of flu shot or you will not be allowed to continue clinical." It's not a big deal. The shot won't kill you.

I dont know if I'm going to BC or not. No, the shot probably won't kill me, doesn't mean I want it.

As far as taking it for an RN program, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Lol so far I've been lucky. :)

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Wow. You do know that you can transmit the flu virus before you start to feel sick and that can make the difference for a neutropenic patient, don't you? It's just a shot, not a big deal. To your patients, though, it IS a big deal. A patient on chemo, a patient with HIV, a patient who is immuno-suppressed due to a organ transplant are all examples of patients that need you to be healthy. This is what you should have learned in school.

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Wow. You do know that you can transmit the flu virus before you start to feel sick and that can make the difference for a neutropenic patient don't you? It's just a shot, not a big deal. To your patients, though, it IS a big deal. A patient on chemo, a patient with HIV, a patient who is immuno-suppressed due to a organ transplant are all examples of patients that need you to be healthy. This is what you should have learned in school.[/quote']

I agree with you. Two patients had H1N1. I'm glad I got my flu shot. I'm diabetic and I cannot risk catching it FROM them. It's for both nurse and patient. It's becoming mandatory now. Either get it or quit.

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Really it does protect the patients, I refused my flu shot last year. I got it and for 2 weeks I was totally useless plus I infected my whole household.

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This is what I don't understand: no one asks the countless members of the unwashed public who traipse in and out of the hospital every day if they got their flu shots. I haven't had the flu in 25 years and I've never had a flu shot. Right now my employer doesn't require it, but we do have to sign a declination. Until they require it, I'm not getting it.

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I'm amazed at how a job can force you to put something in your body that if you don't want to. What has this world come to? What happened to just washing your hands and covering your mouth when you cough, sneeze, etc?

I've never gotten the flu shot I'm my life. And I wish someone would threaten me of my job. I'd just quit. No sweat off my back. I know some people can't afford to do that though which makes it more sad because employers now some people just can't afford to quit.

Um, didn't you have to get the Hep vaccine for nursing school or work? What's the difference? You had to get a vaccine to prevent blood-borne diseases in case of exposure, when according to your logic just standard precautions should suffice. Just curious.

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Um didn't you have to get the Hep vaccine for nursing school or work? What's the difference? You had to get a vaccine to prevent blood-borne diseases in case of exposure, when according to your logic just standard precautions should suffice. Just curious.[/quote'] I had my titers done. I didn't have to get any vaccines for school. Maybe I got the hep b as a kid. Don't remember. :)
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