Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

Nurses COVID

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  1. Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

    • 1998
      Yes
    • 5012
      No

7,010 members have participated

This is a hot topic, so I thought I'd ask all your opinion of allnurses.com community. According a survey linked below, 87% of the public think we should? What do you as a healthcare provider think? Please take a second and answer the poll, and make a comment if you wish. Thanks

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Specializes in NICU, Peds, ICU/CCU, Cathlb,ER, Flight.

Interesting you can say "definitely" lamazeteacher...you got a crystal ball?

Now that's real scientific.

Spreading misinformation? You've got some nerve.

Do you work OB or ER?

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
Interesting you can say "definitely" lamazeteacher...you got a crystal ball?

Now that's real scientific.

Spreading misinformation? You've got some nerve.

Do you work OB or ER?

I have worked in Administration, ED, OB, Infection control, Public Health, Research on Doctor-Patient Communication, Nursing Education, Employee Health, and Umbilical cord blood Stem Cell Preservation. I read extensively online for the latest developments in medicine and nursing on official sites, to keep up to date, since I retired 2 years ago. I do have the nerve to state my opinions as they're scientifically based.

No, I don't rely on crystal balls, horoscopes or other pseudo sciences as there's plenty of reliable information out there. Try to avoid being offensive, Peggyfaye - it robs you of energy that would be more beneficially applied to better efforts. When you read about things like vaccines, be sure that the research is credible, in that it involves 1,000s of people, along with a control group of similar numbers. Other so-called studies are anecdotal, without value for any use.

Many years of varied nursing experience gives me the ability to be very definite about subjects of which I know a lot.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

If all these acute respiratory failures and deaths of healthy individuals at my hospital are really H1N1, I will take the risk of a reaction to the vaccine. I would rather risk it then pass away like the poor woman we lost a week ago.

Do I think it's right to mandate any vaccine? Absolutely not, what people do is their right as it is their body.

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Specializes in NICU, Peds, ICU/CCU, Cathlb,ER, Flight.

I have 33 yrs. experience as an RN, Lamazeteacher.

The swine flu was the 1st epidemic that I dealt with as a new grad in '76.

I have worked in the ED for over a decade, front lines when it comes flu seasons.

So we disagree~because of that you assume that I stay less informed of credible sources of research? There is lack of data on the effectiveness of this vaccine, people are hopeful & I pray that it will not harm those who receive it.

I don't agree with everyone's conclusions on this forum, but I also don't lecture them that I am right & they are wrong. There are many things that are not definite on the subject of flu epidemics & vaccines~

I am happy in life & respected in my medical community. I'm not robbed of anything because I expressed to you that your post came off as arrogant & offensive. When people disagree with your opinion, it doesn't mean that you are correct & they are wrong / misinformed.

This forum is to express how we are all dealing with these difficult events in our nsg. practice.

Peace.

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Specializes in Too many to list.

The swine flu was the 1st epidemic that I dealt with as a new grad in '76.

The 1976 swine flu virus, A/New Jersey/76 (Hsw1N1) never caused an epidemic. There was an outbreak of this novel virus but it was confined solely to Ft. Dix, New Jersey.

There was however, a concurrent outbreak of influenza A/Victoria/3/75 (H3N2) that infected populations more widely not only at Ft. Dix, but elsewhere as well. Could this be what you are referring to?

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-0965.htm

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I don't believe anyone should be required to have any vaccine. That being said the public has a reasonable expectation that they will not get a disease from a healthcare worker. It seems it should be dept specific. Taking a sabbatical or asking for a dept with fewer risks should not be punishable offenses if you choose to not get the vaccine. Obviously working in an area such as the ED, Peds or NICU, Urgent care, or a primary care doctor's office should be mandatory. I can't imagine not getting it if I worked there (and I do) even with the risks. I also could never forgive myself if I contracted it at work and took it home to my family. There are pretty big risks with children. The vaccine was used widely in Australia and, at least short term, the side effects are minimal.

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Read the fine print of the flu vaccine insert package. BOTH the seasonal flu vaccine, and nasal mist have the H1N1 component in the vaccine. Strange, that no one in the media or govn't agencies has mentioned the nasal mist contains live virus. Do ya think there could be some link between the young people falling ill with H1N1 and the live virus? Hmmmm.....

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Specializes in Med Surg.

Anyone ever stop at the store or Burger King on the way to work? You could be standing in the middle of a whole crowd of folks who are carrying the H1N1 strain. What about the people you get onto the elevator with or the family member of a patient you brush up against in the room? Ever help a patient undress and put away their belongings when they are admitted? H1N1 can live on porous surfaces like scrubs for 12 hours. It can live on a solid surface like over bed tables and side rails for up to 48 hours. That means there is a very good chance you are carrying the virus in and out of patient rooms every day. You don't have to be sick yourself to spread it.

To me, mandatory vaccination policies are more about public relations than protecting patients. The best reason I can think of for getting this is to protect yourself from other people. Worried about your family? Get them vaccinated.

If someone doesn't want to be vacccinated that should be their right. If you want to be vaccinated that great. I will get it when it is finally available at my location but that is because I hate having the flu in any form. I'm just honest enough to say I'm doing it for me and not because I'm protecting my patients from something that has very likely been carried into their room by a dozen different people already.

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NO...the illness was here before the live vaccine.

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Specializes in Too many to list.
Read the fine print of the flu vaccine insert package. BOTH the seasonal flu vaccine, and nasal mist have the H1N1 component in the vaccine.

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/vaccine_keyfacts.htm

The same answers would be true whether we talking about seasonal or swine flu vaccines. Descriptions of both are given at the CDC site:

A 2009 H1N1 "flu shot" — an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) The 2009 H1N1 flu shot is being made in the same way that the seasonal flu shot is made.

The 2009 H1N1 nasal spray flu vaccine — a vaccine made with live, weakened viruses that do not cause the flu (sometimes called LAIV for "live attenuated influenza vaccine").

Strange, that no one in the media or govn't agencies has mentioned the nasal mist contains live virus.

You seem to think that this is being kept a secret. It isn't. Strangely enough, most of us on this site are professional nurses, and we already knew this. Better yet we even understand how the vaccine works, and if we didn't we have been trained to look up the science based information that explains it.

...the nasal mist contains live virus.

Of course, it does. This is quite elegant really, and it is a very nice way for children afraid of injections to be immunized.

FluMist is a live, attenuated virus that cannot replicate at body temperature and cannot cause the flu.

While FluMist consists of a live form of influenza virus given through the nose, it has been weakened so that it cannot cause infection. First, many of the viral virulence factors have been altered, removing its ability to cause infection. Secondly, the FluMist virus cannot reproduce at temperatures above 37-39 degrees Celsius, the temperature of human lungs and lower airway. The FluMist virus cannot survive in lungs, bloodstream, or deeper parts of the body.

http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=3689

Do ya think there could be some link between the young people falling ill with H1N1 and the live virus? Hmmmm.....

No, I don't think this. Here are some reasons why I don't.

...several unlikely events would need to occur in order for a FluMist recipient to spread virus that then causes a clinical infection in others:

• The person must shed the virus from their nose.

• The amount of virus shed would need to be large enough to cause spread of infection.

• If the FluMist virus is spread to another person, it must become able to reproduce in the temperature of the lower airways.

• After the first three steps occur then the FluMist virus would have to regain its ability to cause disease.

There have been no instances of symptomatic transmission of the vaccine virus in adults. The only documented case of person-to-person transmission of the FluMist virus occurred when one child transmitted virus to another at daycare where there was prolonged close contact. The second child did not develop symptomatic infection. Finally, there has never been an instance where the FluMist virus has regained its ability to reproduce at higher temperatures or to cause infection. Thus, there is no likelihood that vaccination with FluMist would cause a flu-like infection.

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No, I have the right to autonomy and the right to refuse!

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I have been in the field for 30 years........I have never seen anything like this before........I will quit any job, any time, if I would be force to take something I don't want. This new hospital I just started in NC......Makes the ER staff have a PPD every 3 months.........Is this right? They claim to have a high TB population, I don't see it.........I came from south Florida, were they do!! and still only had it once a year. There is no way.......I would get this flu shot either!! Every year I pass up the regular flu shot........I have already been exposed to H1N1 patients, I still haven't gotten it..............Its my body!!! NO ONE has the right to tell me what to do!!

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