Nurses and vaccines

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Not sure if I should have posted this under "pandemics" but this is a general question. What vaccines are nurses required to have? Do you have to take the H1N1? What if you don't want to? I am against alot of these vaccines as I don't feel they are necessary safe. I also feel that patients are overmedicated but that's a whole other topic. I'm not a nurse but if I were forced to take the H1N1 or whatever new shot they come up with, I'd have to reconsider this field altogether.

Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

In the USA no official can force one to take a vaccine. An employer however can choose to not employ you if you do not choose to take the vaccines. I have heard it stated that bluntly from employers; "We understand your concerns about this vaccine and encourage everyone to make the best decision for themselves. However if you choose to not take this vaccine, we will need to ask you to find employment elsewhere".

Some employers will allow one to sign a waiver and not take a vaccine, some vaccines are not optional. Where I work, Hep B, MMR & chickenpox are required, either they give you the vaccine or they draw blood to prove one's titer is positive. These requirements are unit specific, ours are stricter than others.

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H1N1 vaccine is now mandatory for the USAF... just saying it may be safer than you think, but then again we are test mules!

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For anyone who has had the titers can you tell me how yours turned out? I have read elsewhere that even if you have all the childhood vaccines, almost noone passes the titers and you need to get all the vaccines over again.

I cant find the logic behind this. If vaccines really do work the way the govt would lead us to believe, then the entire adult population would not be immune to any of these diseases we get vaccinated for. Otherwise why would the titers come back negative and as students we need the shots all over again? That being said, there are no outbreaks or problems associated with any of these diseases in our population today. Adults do not go back and get revaccinated so why would health care workers need to get the vaccines again?

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
For anyone who has had the titers can you tell me how yours turned out? I have read elsewhere that even if you have all the childhood vaccines, almost noone passes the titers and you need to get all the vaccines over again.

I cant find the logic behind this. If vaccines really do work the way the govt would lead us to believe, then the entire adult population would not be immune to any of these diseases we get vaccinated for. Otherwise why would the titers come back negative and as students we need the shots all over again? That being said, there are no outbreaks or problems associated with any of these diseases in our population today. Adults do not go back and get revaccinated so why would health care workers need to get the vaccines again?

I had titers drawn for MMR, Chicken pox, and Hep B all came back positive meaning that I was immune.

Oh really no outbreaks: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,379388,00.html

http://news.aol.com/article/mumps-outbreak-hits-new-york-and-new/734207

Outbreaks are becoming more common because more people are refusing to be vaccinated. No medicine is 100% effective, but vaccines have cured one disease already (small pox last case was in the late 70's), and it was thought at one time it might cure polio also.

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I had my chickpox vaccine when I was young. Pneumonia, too.

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For anyone who has had the titers can you tell me how yours turned out? I have read elsewhere that even if you have all the childhood vaccines, almost noone passes the titers and you need to get all the vaccines over again.

I cant find the logic behind this. If vaccines really do work the way the govt would lead us to believe, then the entire adult population would not be immune to any of these diseases we get vaccinated for. Otherwise why would the titers come back negative and as students we need the shots all over again? That being said, there are no outbreaks or problems associated with any of these diseases in our population today. Adults do not go back and get revaccinated so why would health care workers need to get the vaccines again?

I had the children's infective diseases and then all titers were positive. No need to get the vaccines again. I needed Hep B shots and titer was positive too. I had BCG as I'm from Europe. The NP read it as positive, I don't think it was positive (I read all about it and measured it very carefully) but she had the power to write the result and suggest isoniazid to me. All my chest xrays were negative for years. Crazy NP!

I think the labs must have messed up the results or their machines were broken. People in our hospital lab screw up things all the time. So we have to stay on top of everything. If you had the disease you have antibodies. I don't get flu vaccines, not even H1N1 (Europe has too much unused swine flu vaccines already as we don't panic that easily there as people in the US). Nurses are exposed to so much in the hospitals that we probably have antibodies to every disease on earth.

Also, I like asking our attendings about science related questions (almost none of them got the H1N1 shots), because they have a ton more knowledge and the latest info.

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The facility I work at allows us to sign a waiver ifwe refuse the H1N1 vaccine, but also requires that we wear a mask for all pt care during flu season! In other words, we all got the vaccine!

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Specializes in Psych, Pediatrics, GI, Diabetes.

Luckily, I got all of my main vaccines when I was little...for some odd reason, the older I've gotten, the worse I react to them - flu vaccines, always feel awful and run around 99-100 degree fever, final straw was when I got a DtaP booster, perfectly healthy the day before and woke up less than 12 hours later with a fever of 102.1...so, no more vaccines for me... :(

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I am hoping to be a nursing student very soon, as in this year. However, I think I may have hit a snag. I had my titers done, and I am not immune to the mumps. Due to medical reasons, I cannot have the MMR vaccine. Also, I can not have the live flu vaccine every year. I am waiting to hear from a school now on whether the facilities that I would do clinicals will take me without being vaccinated.

Has anyone encountered anything like this? Were you allowed in the nursing program?

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