Is there really no way to refuse a mandatory flu shot?

[tariqblaze]

Besides the medical and religious reasons which are clearly only for a rare few, is there really no hope for the healthcare occupation and those who refuse under all circumstances to get a flu shot? I was looking online to find some solutions on how to opt out, but unusually I was not able to find any type of viable solution that I could particularly use except for possibly lying which may or may still not even work.

Gestapo at its finest. Lets just hope another vocation is hiring. Clearly this isnt the field for me, or at least the particular facility.

[ixchel]

This has been making its way around Facebook. It's a parody of a similar post, and in my opinion, it's amazing. Follow links in the post to find the research supporting it.

http://violentmetaphors.com/2014/03/25/parents-you-are-being-lied-to/

[toomuchbaloney]

A sore arm that lasts for years is bad technique, not the vaccine.

Might have nicked a nerve or something.

Our hospital made it mandatory or you wear a mask. I'd suffocate in a mask all day.

You don't have to work someplace that makes it mandatory - and it certainly is NOT like the Gestapo. (My husband peeked over my shoulder and said "she has no idea who the Gestapo were and what they did").

I've gotten the flu shot for years with no negative side effects.

Thank you for this post. Hyperbole using terms like Gestapo relative to influenza vaccination policies makes the individual appear ignorant, IMHO.

I get the vaccine every year. Years ago I suffered through a bout of influenza that I most certainly got from working. I was a young, healthy, and fit nurse and I was about as sick as I ever have been since (chemotherapy excluded). The illness devastated the staffing in the south wing of the hospital where all of the pediatric and maternal care was provided. One child nearly died after coming down with the flu while hospitalized for his asthma.

Yeah, I receive the vaccine annually. I advocate for my children, my spouse, and all of my friends getting vaccinated.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

-I clearly state several times that my objection/concern is the lack of credible long-term research proving the safety of the flu vaccine.

How did you do your literature search?

I only ask because it's near impossible not to find "credible long-term research" unless you search for "credible long-term research that proves vaccines are dangerous".

[ixchel]

I've said this in a different way on this thread, but I now have a tiny bit of experience to back it up since doing a rotation on an ICU step down unit.

Don't oppose vaccination just because trendy people say it's bad.

Understand how vaccination actually works.

Don't let yourself be offended by the ugly term "herd immunity". No, you're not cattle. No one thinks you are, unless you can't think for yourself.

I had a few patients first half of the semester who had the flu. They were parents, grandparents, siblings, all very loved people.

They all had at least one other thing wrong with them - hypertension, COPD (not all COPD patients are smokers - some have battled asthma their entire lives), diabetes, CVD.... They all had just that one common condition stacked against them, or they had a few of these common things stacked against them.

And then they got the flu.

Most of these patients, when I got them, they were coming off vents after having respiratory failure. FROM THE FLU.

There is one man in particular that still is with me in my heart because on my last day, I saw he had gone back to the ICU on ventilation after I'd cared for him two days previously. I don't know if he survived it. He had another round of respiratory failure and coded not two hours after my shift had ended. We had spent the entire day running in and out of his room because his O2 kept dropping.

His daughter was there for all of it. She loved her dad very much and was frustrated because he really could have taken better care of himself. We all have that person in our lives - the person who, if they took better care of themselves, they probably would be just fine. And we lecture them, or drop subtle hints, or do small things to help them, maybe without them even realizing it because they're too stubborn and wouldn't accept help if they knew you were giving it. We love that person in spite of their stubbornness on self care.

ALERT: If they get the flu, it might kill them.

No, really, they could die. If you have contracted the flu and you are symptomless before you know you have it, how are you going to stop yourself from giving it to your loved ones? Maybe it's not worth the risk to you to protect your patients in this way, but think about your grandparents. Wouldn't you want to protect them?

Vaccination is not perfect. It has flaws. It can't prevent every strain. It also doesn't claim to prevent every strain. You can go into battle armed, or unarmed - doesn't mean you'll survive, but wouldn't you rather be armed to up your chances? It is a thing of odds, and when you make the effort to reduce those odds, you assist in saving the lives of your loves ones.

If I were sitting at the bedside of my dad who probably won't survive the flu, I don't think I could forgive myself if I knew I gave it to him, when I could have prevented getting it in the first place. In the question, "to vaccinate? Or not to vaccinate?" IT ISN'T ABOUT YOU.

Unless, of course, you have asthma, diabetes, hypertension, COPD, CVD, or any of those very common complications that puts you in that category that the flu can actually kill you. In that case, OMG how is this even a debate????

/soap box rant