Mandatory flu vaccines for staff

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How does everyone feel about the latest trends in hospital administration's demands that all nurses must receive the influenza vaccine or wear a mask the entire time they are on duty....including eating lunch!

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

No shot equals no job here....unless you have a doctor's note, which is scrutinized by a board. They are't taking religious excuses either. Do I think it is right, no, but I always get a flu shot.

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I am a nurse, and I got Guillain Barre Syndrome from the flu shot many years before I was a nurse. I have never gotten the flu shot since I have been a nurse, neither have my 3 children. We haven't had the flu in our home yet. We wash our hands. I'll take the flu ten times over before I will go through the 6 months of hell I went through when I have GBS.

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For the first time ever, my hospital has implemented mandatory influenza vaccines to all HCW or wear a mask for 12 hrs while at work. I work on a rural Med-surg floor with a total 12 nurses....half of us do not want to get it. Our boss actually stood there arguing with us about why we should get it and told us "there is NO religous belief banning vaccines, nor is there any harm in wearing a mask for 12 hrs even with Asthma". I was very offended and starting looking for another job. As of next week, I start my new job.

Since this arguement with my boss, I have done alot of reserach into this issue. I found out its apart of the Healthy People Goals 2020 and that its the hopes of the Joint Commission that ALL hospitals will have mandatory vaccines for its HCW by 2020. So this is only the beginning. I also found an article in the Hospital Infection Control and Prevention journal at ACHmedia.com (feb 2012)"OSHA Strongly Opposes Feds Move to Mandate Flu Vaccines for HCW. In this article it states there is insufficient evidence to warrant such policies and openly questioned the long standing perception that vaccines make patients safer. In the January 2012 issue of Hospital Emplyee health, an article titled "Is Flu Shot Efficacy Being Oversold?" it states studies published in Lancet Infectious Diseases showed that even when the influenza vaccine is well matched to the prevailing strains its efficacy is only 59% for adult ages 18-59. The CDC now has changed its website to say the influenza vaccine is 50-70% effective...big difference compared to last year when it said 70-90% effective. Now to the issue of wearing a surgical mask at work...I found another article "Face Mask to prevent transmission of influenza virus: a systematic review, (Cambridge, 2010)" stating there is some evidence to support the wearing of a mask during an illness to protect others while at work, there are fewer data to support wearing the mask to prevent becoming infected. It went on to say that further studies need to be done in order to better define the effectiveness of face mask in preventing the transmission...so there is real no data out there to support wearing or not wearing a mask.

Anyways, I thought I would pass along what I had found out since this issue will be growing in the coming years. I would leave my job before injected chemicals into my body every year. Never had the flu vaccine and never will...hence my new job!!!!!

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Specializes in Medical, Surgical, Critical-Care.

My job has been trying to mandate this for some time now. All of the hospitals surrounding us are doing it. Next year is supposed to be the final year. I got the vaccine this year because I felt pressured. I figured I would go ahead and take it since it would soon be mandatory. We will have to wear a mask the entire flu season if we don't.

Anyway, I became sick for 15 days! 15 days of immediate diarrhea after all meals. Even water. The tests I got looking for the problem were not cheap either. No more flu shots for me!

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Specializes in Emergency.

Funny story. In 2009 when the bird flu was all the craze, my hospital along with many others began offering a separate vaccine for that strain of flu. So in addition to the mandatory seasonal flu shot, we could opt to receive a second vaccine.

Well, the very thought that I was being forced to get a vaccine period ****** me off enough to opt out of getting the additional vaccination. Well surprise surprise, guess who got sick as a dog with what I thought was a terrible cold, only to swab positive for the bird flu (influenza A)? Lol, lesson learned!

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Specializes in Critical Care.

For every article supporting flu vaccines, I can find you another one documenting the lack of proof that flu vaccines actually help prevent the flu. There are actually reports by leading immunologists that state that patients that received the flu vaccine had a higher mortality rate from the h1n1 vaccine. Think about this logically. This year's flu vaccine is made from weakened strains of last years flu. The flu is a type of virus....and guess what? Viruses mutate. They change from year to year. This means the vaccine you receive this year is most likely not going to prevent you from getting this year's version of the flu. My hospital has just adopted a mandatory vaccination policy with religious and medical exemptions allowed. I am seriously considering seeking employment elsewhere. FYI there is also a documented study that shows that patients who have received the flu vaccine for 10 consecutive years have an increased risk of developing Alzheimers , by a factor of 10. Sorry, I dont support the mandatory flu vaccine policy. You may say that it protects our patients but I have yet to see documented proof to that effect. Guess what happens when the hospital you work for, administers a vaccine to you? YOU BECOME THEIR PATIENT! I consider this a violation of patient rights.

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Funny story. In 2009 when the bird flu was all the craze, my hospital along with many others began offering a separate vaccine for that strain of flu. So in addition to the mandatory seasonal flu shot, we could opt to receive a second vaccine.

Well, the very thought that I was being forced to get a vaccine period ****** me off enough to opt out of getting the additional vaccination. Well surprise surprise, guess who got sick as a dog with what I thought was a terrible cold, only to swab positive for the bird flu (influenza A)? Lol, lesson learned!

If it was bird flu - it wouldn't be a funny story. I hope you understand that the addition vaccination in 2009 was for a novel pH1N1 virus that circulated. It was developed separately from the trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine. Since then pH1N1 had been incorporated in the seasonal vaccine every year.

I pretty sure your didn't get bird flu (H5N1).

You ought to be concerned about the "new" bird flu in China. In the past two months more than 80 cases have been reported and 16 have died. That means 1 in 5 infected people are dying.

So far, the is no sustained transmission between people, but that could change tomorrow. It will take a minimum of seven months to create a vaccine. So you all have time to decide whether or not you would consider taking a H7N9 vaccine.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I was mandated to get the flu vaccine for school. I am already a LPN and my work does not require it. I suffer terribly from migraines, but have been migraine free for over 4 months since starting a new medication. It has changed my life really. Anyways I got the flu shot the other night because I was "forced" to for nursing school. I have never had the shot before. Low and behold about 6 hours later I had the worst migraine I think I have had in years. I spent almost a day and a half in bed with this headache. Absolutely NOTHING would get rid of it. Thank goodness it was my day off work or I would have had to call off. I know this flu shot caused this migraine!!!!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I would just like to add one more thing. Our school would not let us decline the flu shot because believe me I would have, I tried. I have ALWAYS been against it. BUT they will let us decline the hepatitis B series. Yeah because the flu would be a lot more tragic than hepatitis...smh. Something is wrong here.

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You are making the assumption that the 80 REPORTED were the only cases...

If it was bird flu - it wouldn't be a funny story. I hope you understand that the addition vaccination in 2009 was for a novel pH1N1 virus that circulated. It was developed separately from the trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine. Since then pH1N1 had been incorporated in the seasonal vaccine every year.

I pretty sure your didn't get bird flu (H5N1).

You ought to be concerned about the "new" bird flu in China. In the past two months more than 80 cases have been reported and 16 have died. That means 1 in 5 infected people are dying.

So far, the is no sustained transmission between people, but that could change tomorrow. It will take a minimum of seven months to create a vaccine. So you all have time to decide whether or not you would consider taking a H7N9 vaccine.

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