How many unvaccinated coworkers are you aware of?

[DesiDani]

How have you expressed your displeasure about their choice? Are you questioning why they have not been terminated yet?

[queenanneslace, ADN, MSN, APRN, CNM]

1 minute ago, RJMDilts said:

 So, firing these RNs will do what exactly?

I'm not in charge of firing nurses, so I'm not sure of the exact game plan. I agree, it is massively disruptive to staffing, and dangerous to patients.

But I cannot fathom why my colleagues are refusing the vaccine, as I was getting tired of trying to keep myself alive with my unlimited re-use N95 mask last year, to try to protect myself. Within minutes of being offered the vaccine at work, I was running down the hall and in line to get it. 

I wish we could convince our healthcare colleagues to take this vaccine, and to promote vaccination to the general public instead of indulging their misguided selfishness. 

Maybe they need to suffer an economic and/or professional setback to see the value in vaccination? The carrot wasn't working. Now they're getting the stick. 

Have you convinced a hesitant colleague to accept the vaccine?  What worked?

[RETNAVYTHENMEDIC2RN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

1 minute ago, queenanneslace said:

I'm not in charge of firing nurses, so I'm not sure of the exact game plan. I agree, it is massively disruptive to staffing, and dangerous to patients.

But I cannot fathom why my colleagues are refusing the vaccine, as I was getting tired of trying to keep myself alive with my unlimited re-use N95 mask last year, to try to protect myself. Within minutes of being offered the vaccine at work, I was running down the hall and in line to get it. 

I wish we could convince our healthcare colleagues to take this vaccine, and to promote vaccination to the general public instead of indulging their misguided selfishness. 

Maybe they need to suffer an economic and/or professional setback to see the value in vaccination? The carrot wasn't working. Now they're getting the stick. 

Have you convinced a hesitant colleague to accept the vaccine?  What worked?

I may have convinced a few by explaining this "experimental" vaccine has been in the works for many years. It was not something created in a matter of months. It was certainly refined for the specific variant but I also explained that when you take all the resources and focus it on one specific task a lot can be accomplished in a short amount of time. The archaic process of vaccine validation and roll out has caused a lot of issues because people believe it takes "years and years" for a vaccine to be ready. Truth is most "long term" side effects are realized in the near term. The data is out there to be found if folks were not so lazy. 

That being said, I am Libertarian and a 30 year military veteran. I am good at following orders. I am also good at defending peoples ability to exercise their freedoms. I do agree the hospitals/facilities have the right to mandate the vaccine. Staff can choose to not get vaccinated and get fired. I totally disagree with them being fired though.

I got my vaccine on day 2 of availability last December. I could not wait. The promise of getting back to normal was a draw as well as the protection it afforded me. I too don't understand the reluctance on the part of adults to take it.

I currently see it as I see the flu vax after having all the time to see how it has worked. That is one reason why I am not on board with the mandate and terminating staff when we are drowning due to shortages. Some places around here mandate extra PPE for those who opt out of seasonal flu vax. I don't see why we don't do the same for COVID vax. Just my opinion, as I see the staff shortage as = dangerous to patients.

I appreciate your response and discourse.

[klone, MSN, RN]

On 9/17/2021 at 10:33 AM, Auqtu said:

You're the one who claimed if my perspective changed. 
You must not read very much or are so one sided on the topic that you are unaware of the injuries this and other vaccines have...just check the CDC VAERS.  
Its about time claims of "safe and effective" cease from being tossed around like candy at a parade when the science isn't settled.  There have not been enough long term studies to know exactly what is happening to people's physiology....short term, we've seen plenty of injuries. Check the VAERS site.  A GOOD RN knows to understand both sides.    

A good RN would know that VAERS is unvetted, anybody can submit an entry to it, and it's useless for determining actual vaccine injury.

[iNurs5, CNA]

13 hours ago, RKM2021 said:

LOL they do love there high horse don't they... 

 

The vaccine websites themselves state they can't list long term effects of vaccine bacuse clincal trials are still ongoing so I see your point. 

They understand. For whatever reason, they want an instant result that is impossible to obtain right now.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

17 hours ago, queenanneslace said:

Is there any breakdown published anywhere of which areas of nursing have lowest rates of Covid vaccination? I'm interested, and if OB is up there, I won't be surprised.

I don't know about published, but anecdotally the largest loss of staff after the mandate deadline in my facility was OB, food services, and environmental services.

[klone, MSN, RN]

17 hours ago, queenanneslace said:

How many unvaccinated coworkers are you aware of?

How many? Over half my department (OBGYN), this includes providers and RNs. 

?

I'm on an L&D Nurse FB group and  I'm appalled at how many of them are anti-vax.

[klone, MSN, RN]

17 hours ago, BostonFNP said:

Why do you think physicians have a vaccination rate 75% of while nurses are at 56%?

I believe it's actually over 90% for physician vaccination rate, nationwide.

[jive turkey]

1 hour ago, queenanneslace said:

Maybe they need to suffer an economic and/or professional setback to see the value in vaccination? The carrot wasn't working. Now they're getting the stick. 

Have you convinced a hesitant colleague to accept the vaccine?  What worked?

They won't be the only one getting the stick. Facilities end up shorter than they were previously, affecting healthcare because we decided to bully people in to the vaccine.  

3 minutes ago, klone said:

A good RN would know that VAERS is unvetted, anybody can submit an entry to it, and it's useless for determining actual vaccine injury.

The quality of an RN is not defined by their familiarity with VAERS. 

You are correct. It begets the question, why have VAERS if the information is dismissed? I'm certain if there were no reports of  adverse effects on VAERS, vaccine supporters would use it as evidence the vaccine is safe. 

[klone, MSN, RN]

1 minute ago, jive turkey said:

The quality of an RN is not defined by their familiarity with VAERS. 

You are correct. It begets the question, why have VAERS if the information is dismissed? I'm certain if there were no reports of  adverse effects on VAERS, vaccine supporters would use it as evidence the vaccine is safe. 

I used "a good RN" because that's. what the other. poster used. VAERS is used to investigate entries to determine if they're legit. 

[jive turkey]

2 minutes ago, klone said:

I used "a good RN" because that's. what the other. poster used. VAERS is used to investigate entries to determine if they're legit. 

I hear you.  I don't think it should be dismissed, or treated as confirmation of injury either.  I see people argue back and forth over it to support an argument. At best, it appears to serve as awareness. 

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

4 hours ago, RJMDilts said:

You completely miss the point. There are not a plethora of "Raw Beginners" to send ANYWHERE. I didn't say we didn't have a bunch of experienced nurses to pick from. There is a shortage of new nurses coming out, PERIOD. Perhaps you didn't bother to actually read my post. As for your cavalier attitude about where to palace "Raw" RN's..OB has one of the highest if not the highest malpractice insurance rates in medicine, so I doubt most MD/DO would be happy to see an army of "RAW" RN's backing them up. I for one would not want a bunch of beginners handling my newborn without adequate experienced RN guidance. Jeez, I cannot believe your response as your supposed to be a CRNA. You are probably the one that liked to put 22ga IV in folks having "routine" procedures because "nothing" ever happens. Then I get to deal with inadequate access in the ED when rapid response brings them down and we have to place adequate IV access to resuscitate them. Please actually read the data before making comments. The data shows we don't have the pipeline loaded and ready to fill vacancies that are normally occurring from retirement, burnout, etc., let alone the ones coming from the mandate.

1. You assumed and have made an "***" of yourself. 2. MD insurance rates have nothing to do with nursing since nurses don't practice medicine.  3. I used to be a DON in the olden days when a NYC hospital had a B.N. (baby nurse) program and I jumped to hire them because they had a solid 12 months of working only with babies.  We really don't even need to use RN's in.a healthy baby nursery, IMHO.  I was  DON and never had to look for an OB hire.  If there were only 2 new nursing grads in the entire country, I can guarantee you 1 of them will want to work in OB.  . 4. Your argument that we don't have. pool to recruit from is fallacious.  We have enough nurses.  What we don't have is enough jobs attractive enough to get them back to work.  5.  Large numbers of nurses are not going to be willing to forgo a good paycheck for something that will pay less than half if what they are making .  They cannot afford to lose health insurance.  

[toomuchbaloney]

3 hours ago, RJMDilts said:

Have I ever said the vaccine is unsafe or said not get it in any of these threads?? I love how you completely ignore everything except vaccine, vaccine, vaccine. Shortage of staff and it's impact on patient care be damned, as long as the needle goes in the arm. You are like some drone that is on a continuous loop. I hope you do not find yourself  in need of any emergent care in the ED in the near future and thus experience these issue first hand as a patient. I'll keep preaching get your shot as loud as I can while I keep supporting individuals who don't and hoping the bean counters don't follow through with their threat and fire staff and exacerbate the existing problem. 

I haven't ignored anything and my comment in no way implied that you said that...so what is your point. It's true that if I were to need emergency care in fairbanks right now, my access would be limited because covid illnesses are overwhelming the available resources.  That is true in multiple regions across the country where there are still large groups of unvaccinated adults.