To get the flu shot, or not to get the flu shot...

[jordansnapp]

I am a fourth semester registered nursing student in Idaho. Throughout my nursing education, I have never received a flu shot of any kind. The reason is because I feel that I am a healthy 22 year old, and that there are other people who need it more than I do. How do other people view this issue? Is it something that I should consider once I graduate and become a full-time working RN?

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

Nothing to think about. Get the shot. Protect yourself, your family and your patients.

Actually there is a lot to think about. Last time I got the flu shot, I ended up having nerve damage in my arm from it and missed a lot of work and racked up some nice MD bills. I'm never getting it again as the nerve pain was way worse than having the flu and I missed more work from the inability to use one of my arms than I would have had I gotten the actual flu.

[GM2RN]

OP, how have you skirted around not getting a flu shot in nursing school? Do you choose to wear a mask through your clinicals?

I don't know about the OP, but I wasn't required to get the flu shot in nursing school, and that was 2005-2007.

[talaxandra]

We're still getting H1N1 patients, and it's summer here. Fortunately most of ours haven't been too sick, but more than 75% of them have been under 45 and previously well, and a 22 year old physical education student was rushed down to ICU for a week when she crashed. We've also had several patients go straight to ICU from ED, and I've heard of three H1N1 deaths down there since Christmas.

Good hygeine practices are a great way of reducing the risk of contracting colds and flu, but are useless if an infectious person coughs or sneezes anywhere in your vicinity.

[talaxandra]

here is an interesting website regarding flu shots, just for the other side of the story: http://www.thinktwice.com/swineflu.htm

i haven't read everything on this site, but what i did read included a lot of conjecture - in the links attached to frightening titles like "baby death fromswine flu vaccine" no correlation was made except chronological proximity. there's also a lot of data skewing - for example, while

more than half of the adults who died from swine flu had an underlying chronic illness or medical condition, such as asthma, diabetes, immune deficiency, or morbid obesity.

close to half, by definition, had no underlying chronic illness or medical condition.

and though the claim that

all four of the swine flu manufacturers acknowledge in their product inserts that several debilitating ailments could occur in people following their flu vaccines. these include: blood and lymphatic disorders (lymphadenopathy, thrombocytopenia), nervous system disorders (convulsions, guillain-barre syndrome, or gbs, bell's palsy, and various neuropathies), respiratory ailments, immune system disorders, digestive disorders, and cardiovascular disorders

is accurate, the same is requirement to disclose and the risk of potenital adverse reactions is the same for every pharmaceutical.

paracetamol/acetaminophen, for example, can cause:

- gastric bleeding (daily dosing >2g/day, which is half the maximum recommended daily dose)

- small, indented and calcified kidneys (long-term use equivalent to 1g/day)

- infertility (in 'the posterior adult life of the unborn' if taken during pregnancy)

- increased symptoms of childhood asthma if taken before age one for fever management

- increased incidence of childhood rhinoconjunctivitis and eczma (if used as above)

- erythematous and urticarial rashes

- neutropenia, leucopenia, thrombocytopenia and pancytopenia

- hives

- stephens-johnson syndrome

- anaphylaxis, death

i'm still going to take paracetamol when i've got minor pain, though

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

Any person who put their own anecdotal fears and self interest ahead of epidemiology and evidenced based population health data is

a) a fool

b) unethical

c) both

There is no place in health care for any of the above.