Patient Refusing Unvaccinated RN

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Just as the tittle implies, we recently had a patient's family refusing a nurse who is not vaccinated. As of now, vaccination at my facility is still voluntary; becoming mandatory after September 1st (we still have several staff on the fence about it). My understanding is that the patient happened to come in as a stroke, with a prior  hx of prostate CA. Not sure what was the context of the conversation, but the patient's wife asked the nurse at the time if she was vaccinated (she was not and answered honestly...she could had refused); prompting the wife to request a different nurse due her fear of exposing her possible immunocompromised husband...the assignment was changed. The feeling of some of my co-workers is that we shouldn't had accommodated the request in support of the staff; however, many feel the wife had the right to advocate for her husband and had a valid concern. This has become a hot topic of conversation in the unit during downtime. 

Have anyone come across to anything similar?? If so, how was it handled?

On 7/21/2021 at 4:55 AM, DesiDani said:

That is a false sense of security.  Just because someone is vaccinated does not mean they cannot catch and then spread Covid. So her guard is naively down when her spouse has a nurse who says she is vaccinated? 

It's not a false sense of security if the she simply wants to reduce (rather than completely eliminate) her husband's risk.

Um huh. That's your impression not mine. Her husband will always be at risk despite her wishes. Plus no one has asked if her husband himself got vaccinated. If not he is at risk regardless of who takes care of him, if he is I guess she should be happy with thay 0.001% whatever.

4 minutes ago, DesiDani said:

Um huh. That's your impression not mine. Her husband will always be at risk despite her wishes. Plus no one has asked if her husband himself got vaccinated. If not he is at risk regardless of who takes care of him, if he is I guess she should be happy with thay 0.001% whatever.

Who are any of us to say what she "should" be happy with?

Patient requests are accommodated all the time-often even when the patient wants a replacement because the nurse is a certain race or gender. If I were charge, I'd honor the request.

On 7/21/2021 at 3:41 AM, Delia37 said:

prompting the wife to request a different nurse due her fear of exposing her possible immunocompromised husband...the assignment was changed.

On 7/21/2021 at 3:41 AM, Delia37 said:

as a stroke, with a prior  hx of prostate

Pretty much. If her husband is exposed while at the hospital who will she blame then?

6 hours ago, macawake said:

you’re being quite stubborn about this. 

Pot meet kettle. 

My fully vaccinated brother is staying with me. Remember I am also vaccinated. After work I put my cloth mask in my glove box. Sometimes my brother has to use my car and he ALWAYS seems to find my mask and use them. When I say something his excuse is "well I had to use it really quick. Besides I am vaccinated". 

Umm really?!?! Yeah the , I am superman, attitude of some vaccinated people is rich

Specializes in Critical Care.
8 hours ago, DesiDani said:

My mistake 5 not 5% and I already answered that question. I point is that if she is so concerned BECAUSE her husband is immune compromised why would it matter to her if the RN was vaccinated or not? A vaccinated person, yes is better off if they get the virus, but they still can get and transmit the virus.  Just because I am FULLY VACCINATED I still know that there are some out there who choice not to and CANNOT get the vaccine. I am not going to throw caution to the wind just because I am fully vaccinated?

Yes she is naïve many people come in and out of a hospital room and who knows maybe they all might be vaccinated, but there is no guarantee her immune compromised husband is not at risk of getting it just because she doesn't want one nurse to take care of him.

The benefit to an individual in terms of the increased chance of surviving a Covid infection is really just a secondary benefit, the primary benefit is that those who are vaccinated are significantly less likely to be a suitable host for Covid virus proliferation and the increased ability to spread it to others that results from that proliferation. 

That's why it matters if a patient's nurse is vaccinated or not.  

You're also mischaracterizing the purpose of risk reduction in general.  Seat belts don't reduce your risk of death in a car accident to zero, does that mean there is no point to wearing a seat belt?

17 minutes ago, DesiDani said:

My fully vaccinated brother is staying with me. Remember I am also vaccinated. After work I put my cloth mask in my glove box. Sometimes my brother has to use my car and he ALWAYS seems to find my mask and use them. When I say something his excuse is "well I had to use it really quick. Besides I am vaccinated". 

Umm really?!?! Yeah the , I am superman, attitude of some vaccinated people is rich

Ewwwwww!

Get a package of paper masks and put it in your glove box. 

Your brother is super naughty.?

18 hours ago, DesiDani said:

Um huh. That's your impression not mine. Her husband will always be at risk despite her wishes. Plus no one has asked if her husband himself got vaccinated. If not he is at risk regardless of who takes care of him, if he is I guess she should be happy with thay 0.001% whatever.

18 hours ago, DesiDani said:

 

Pretty much. If her husband is exposed while at the hospital who will she blame then?

Why are you refusing to acknowledge the fact that lower risk is much better than higher risk? I’m wondering if you don’t understand the benefit of being vaccinated. Both for the vaccinated person and the people around them. 
 

And you keep on making up stuff about OP’s patient and the patient’s wife. We don’t know that no one has asked whether the patient has been vaccinated. We don’t know that the patient’s wife thinks that a vaccinated nurse equals zero risk. 

18 hours ago, DesiDani said:

My fully vaccinated brother is staying with me. Remember I am also vaccinated. After work I put my cloth mask in my glove box. Sometimes my brother has to use my car and he ALWAYS seems to find my mask and use them. When I say something his excuse is "well I had to use it really quick. Besides I am vaccinated". 

Umm really?!?! Yeah the , I am superman, attitude of some vaccinated people is rich

Perhaps you shouldn’t project your brother’s misconceptions and very strange behavior onto other vaccinated people? Perhaps this explains why you are assuming all sorts of things about the patient’s wife’s thinking process?

26 minutes ago, Horseshoe said:

Ewwwwww!

Get a package of paper masks and put it in your glove box. 

Your brother is super naughty.?

Horseshoe, you are much more generous than I would be in this situation ? After having told him once to kindly leave my cloth mask alone, the second time it happened I would inform him that walking or riding a bike is good exercise ??

It is my understanding that many nurses in my home care agency lost their employment when families/patients refused their services over the pandemic.  The agency "ran out" of available hours to keep these people working.  Not one mention of putting pressure on the clients to continue services.  The clients and the involved nurses just went away.  At least in a facility setting the nurse has the expectation of a replacement assignment.  I believe that wife had just as much right to question the vaccination status of her husband's nurse as our home care clients doing the same or just flat out stating no nurses will enter their home.  If it were me, I would not be advocating that the nurses right to refuse vaccination trumps the patient's need to minimize possible exposure while hospitalized. 

2 hours ago, macawake said:

Perhaps you shouldn’t project your brother’s misconceptions and very strange behavior onto other vaccinated people?

Seriously LOL! This site is filled with projection. Didn't you project that I was being hell bent on something as if I was a VACCINATED antivaxer (wait that is sounds oddly ironic).  There is no drama in my opinion. It is just that an opinion. Yet, it is you that keeps on stating your opinion, yes opinion, as well. It is my opinion, that the wife is being naïve. It is your opinion she is not.

Simple. No need for drawn out chatroom drama. 

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