Should the H1N1 Vaccine be mandatory for Healthcare Professionals?

[Brian]

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

Here are some related Discussions and Links:

• "Mandatory Flu Shots Hit Resistance" (currently over 105 comments)
  
• Survey: 87% favor mandatory health worker H1N1 shots ) (public opinion)
  
  
• Pandemic Flu Forum
  

[Woodenpug, BSN]

I have a couple thoughts. First, I'm sure many new grads, having trouble finding a job, would have no problem with getting a flu vaccine. The second is a license is a privilege, not a right. So I guess the basic problem with making flu vaccinations mandatory is that it is not done on a state level.

[Julie Reyes, DNP, RN]

No one has the right to tell me what I can and cannot put into my body. Making it mandatory to receive the H1N1 injection is total dictatorship.

However, I am waiting for my hospital to get enough of these vaccinations so I can get one. I work in a children's hospital, and every kid that is brought through the er doors seems to have the flu....i have kids of my own to worry about, I don't want to get sick and bring it home to my family.

[gloria1234]

so........let me understand this......having a license is a privilege...........so what does that have to do with trying to force HCW into getting the flu shot.........so,that gives the goverment,federal,state.......the right to force us to take a vaccine for the flu. This flu vaccine isn't even available to all yet. And even taken this flu shot, will not guarantee that you won't get it. I have never taken a flu shot and I have been exposed to known patients with H1N1, why just HCW? why not force the whole country! This is crazy! I fear far more then catching the flu at work.

[lamazeteacher]

".......I fear far more then catching the flu at work." quote from post #86, by Gloria1234

What could be more frightening than knowing you consciously exposed a pregnant patient, friend, relative, neighbor, or stranger on the street to a preventable viral disease you had which killed them/their unborn child?

This illness is infecting more and more people exponentially, by the minute! Do you really not fear being responsible for accelerating its infection rate further?

[lamazeteacher]

No one has the right to tell me what I can and cannot put into my body. Making it mandatory to receive the H1N1 injection is total dictatorship.

However, I am waiting for my hospital to get enough of these vaccinations so I can get one. I work in a children's hospital, and every kid that is brought through the er doors seems to have the flu....i have kids of my own to worry about, I don't want to get sick and bring it home to my family.

Nursing schools set the tone for professional responsibility in regard to communicable diseases' attenuation, upon students' entrance to it. They weed out anyone with an attitude that: A. projects singularity and B. lacks responsibility for others. That's why you must have up to date immunization to be accepted, or give a valid reason for refusing same. Keeping current with the threshold vaccinations and accepting new ones, as well as having testing that may be periodic (such as for Tb) is a manefestation of being professional.

There has to be acceptance and respect for others with more medical/nursing education, who know more than you do. Humility is a very important asset for anyone practising in a health care setting. Patience is required when resisting new programs, and determination for getting your opinion stated appropriately, to those who have authority for the proposed program. All those attributes serve nurses well, and further the good regard that those with whom they work as a team, need to have for them.

Sometimes knee jerk responses just aren't appropriate for professionals.

[susanthomas1954]

Hey, I want to know if I have TB! Has nothing to do with taking a vaccination.

[Peggyfaye]

Kinda strange that they don't even have the H1N1 available at work right now.

(or anywhere else in town.)

Pregnant women should not take the live virus nasal spray vaccine & they can request an immunization without the Thimerisol (mercury derivative ) in it.

Enough lectures about professionalism, humility, etc. etc.

[TheSquire, DNP, APRN, NP]

Don't get me started about the stupidity with Thimerisol...

[Foley6]

How many times do we tell patients that they have the right to refuse medicine? Why shouldn't we have the same right? Nobody should mandate that you have to put something into your body that you do not approve of, especially something that is not 100% safe.

[Foley6]

Too true, once it is injected, you can't take it back!!

[lamazeteacher]

Foley:

Patients aren't your employees. They can refuse meds and go AMA.

You are an employee of your facility, and to maintain the position that pays your way, you have an obligation to do what you're told, as long as it doesn't conflict with your rules of licensure or endanger anyone.

If you endanger your patients by refusing immunization that gives you (and therefore your patients) protection from catching a lethal disease, that is not consistent with your employment (and your status as a health care professional).

What is clear, is that the vaccine is safer than the disease for 99% of people. What isn't clear, is why you think you can upend your employment, most probably cause infection for yourself and your coworkers, family, and patients, spreading a diosease that's already going like wildfire, and contradict your source of income, becoming a pariah to prove your point!

This is where your focus diverges from yourself, to others. That's called maturity.

[lamazeteacher]

Pregnant women should not take the live virus nasal spray vaccine & they can request an immunization without the Thimerisol (mercury derivative ) in it.

So can you!