Would You Accept Swine Flu Vaccine?

Nurses COVID

Published

  1. Would You Take the Swine Flu Vaccine?

    • 89
      Yes
    • 144
      No
    • 48
      Depends

281 members have participated

My facility had a town hall meeting and announced that this year, it will be mandatory for all direct care staff to get the flu shot, and that they expect the swine flu vaccine to be ready this year, around October, and that we would be mandated to take that as well to protect the patients we care for. I am not very comfortable being mandated to take anything...this would be a brand new vaccine. Why should I be the guinea pig? Thoughts?

Specializes in telemetry.

I am really freaked. Last night I heard that a pregnant RN that I used to work with (she is at a different facility now) came down with swine flu.

She spent a week in the ICU intubated last week and had to have her baby out by c-section (thank god she was full term). I just saw her a couple of weeks ago at the mall. She was looking so great! This just blows my mind. Just goes to show that this is a serious issue and us HCWs should strongly consider getting the vax this time around. To bad it is coming around too late for her.

I am so scared this will happen to me.

I guess we had another patient two weeks ago with a fever (and other serious health issues). He died, and no one knew that he had swine flu until a couple days later when the test came back. He was not in isolation. Everyone had been helping with that Pt. Thats how easily this thing can spread.

You never know they are positive until it is too late.

Protect yourselves folks!

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
My facility had a town hall meeting and announced that this year, it will be mandatory for all direct care staff to get the flu shot, and that they expect the swine flu vaccine to be ready this year, around October, and that we would be mandated to take that as well to protect the patients we care for. I am not very comfortable being mandated to take anything...this would be a brand new vaccine. Why should I be the guinea pig? Thoughts?

Sorry, you lost your chance to be a guinea pig - animal testing has happened as well as humans having it successfully during the research stage, without ill effect having the 2 vaccinations (that's how it was determined that 2 shots are necessary, 3 weeks apart). Wow, town halls are becoming extremely popular!

Power struggles with employers are seldom won easily. This is not a situation wherein it would be wise to get into that! Having it mandatory is a way to obtain free (tax deductible for the facility) vaccine for employees. They're doing you a favor

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

My biggest worry is looking after someone at work who's got an undiagnosed case, I catch it, and then transmit it to family, friends, church; if someone caught it from me when transmission was preventable and died or lost an unborn child as a result, I'd never be able to live with it. That's why I'll take the vaccine.

However, if you don't want to take it, you shouldn't nave to. But the hospital has the right to tell you to take it or quit, because having a large unvaccinated population can put them at risk of liability. If one person caught the flu while in the hospital from a HCW the lawsuits would be flying.

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My biggest worry is looking after someone at work who's got an undiagnosed case, I catch it, and then transmit it to family, friends, church; if someone caught it from me when transmission was preventable and died or lost an unborn child as a result, I'd never be able to live with it. That's why I'll take the vaccine.

However, if you don't want to take it, you shouldn't nave to. But the hospital has the right to tell you to take it or quit, because having a large unvaccinated population can put them at risk of liability. If one person caught the flu while in the hospital from a HCW the lawsuits would be flying.

If you take care of an undiagnosed case, you can spread it whether you've had the vaccine or not. The problem is that when the case is undiagnosed, you're probably not taking appropriate precautions.

It's one of my pet peeves that we don't isolate rule out cases until too long after they're admitted.

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
my biggest worry is looking after someone at work who's got an undiagnosed case, i catch it, and then transmit it to family, friends, church; if someone caught it from me when transmission was preventable and died or lost an unborn child as a result, i'd never be able to live with it. that's why i'll take the vaccine.

however, if you don't want to take it, you shouldn't have to. but the hospital (doesn't) have the right to tell you to take it or quit, because having a large unvaccinated population can put them at risk of liability. if one person caught the flu while in the hospital from a hcw the lawsuits would be flying.

lamaze teacher wrote the red entry....

you're right; and your first statement is why you will look more positively at having the vaccine. hepatitisb vaccine acceptance in the late '80s is an example of the position that health care facility administrators found themselves in, when it is strongly recommended that their employees have a vaccine, yet the law then stated that they could stay in their positions without it. i gave that in the late '80s, when it was given (at no cost, other than for lab work, which was absorbed by the county) by the pharmaceutical company that manufactured it, to the "county" facility where i worked as their employee health/infection control nurse.

the weird thing about who stepped up for the vaccine first is, that it was the comparitively affluent doctors! i was told that they had previously refused it, when $25. was required for the series of 3 injections of vaccine. many nurses already had beem immunized, with some forgetting that. so i drew employees' blood to have proof of need for the vaccine.

to my surprise (not being aware that it was so prevalent in the phillipines), all the phillipine employees had antibody formation, with 1 having antigens, meaning he was a carrier (who maintained his employment, but would not have been placed to work in the or). so the vaccine wasn't necessary for them.......no employee was terminated because they didn't take it! they did "catch flack" from their coworkers when they didn't take the vaccine

being as compulsive as i am, i took blood again a month following the 3rd shot, from all the employees i vaccinated, to see that antibody formation happened for them. everyone who took all 3 appropriately spaced shots, had them. since h1n1 is a novel flu, no one would be expected to already have antibodies of that, without awareness of having been sick this year. even those who had the mildest cases recall having a sore throat and possibly a cough, between march and now (even me, at 70 years of age). i will take the vaccine, and before that i'd care for patients with h1n1 (if my work required that!).

that makes me think of your fear that you could possibly bring flu from your work, to church, etc. it is contagious, while asymptomatic, for 2 days prior to the acute phase, so i'd advise you to keep your distance (2-3 feet) from pregnant women and their immediate families, for about a week (which could be anyone of childbearing age, married or not) after you've provided direct nursing care for a patient who was coughing and diagnosed with h1n1. that way, if they got it, they couldn't point fingers at you; and you will know that you did your best to avoid spreading the illness to them. after about a week following the 2nd shot of h1n1 vaccine, you can relax about that. always maintain hand hygiene practices and have tissues with you in case of coughing!

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Is it a killed virus or live? I know I read soemwhere which it was, but I do not recall.

Also, if you have it once are you truly immune?

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
Is it a killed virus or live? I know I read soemwhere which it was, but I do not recall.

Also, if you have it once are you truly immune?

When the H1N1 vaccine is available in late Sept./Oct., it will be given twice, 3 weeks between each injection for optimum immunity. It is a KILLED virus derived vaccine, that is no problem for folks who are allergic to eggs. :nurse:

It hasn't been stated whether lifelong immunity will result, and if mutations occur, another vaccine will probably be necessary.

See you at the vaccination/immunization clinics!

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Thanks LT - I will be the one holding the needle!

Also, do we know yet if once you have had swine flu you are immune? As long as it hasn't mutated?

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Massachusetts has set up guidelines to allow dentists and pharmacists to give flu vaccines. They are also considering allowing nusing students and medical students the power to vaccinate.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/swampscott/news/x2145958663/State-adopts-emergency-rules-to-expand-pool-of-flu-vaccine-administrators

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.

Pharmacists in VA give vaccines.

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.

I was surprised, when reading the comments following the article in H 2 O's post, that they were all from the USA.......

I have read reports of figures regarding credible research studies' subjects' reactions following administration of H1N1 vaccine. There was nothing there about Guillaume-Buerre consequences from it. The 1 case in 1,000,000 vaccinations seems pretty safe. I have never seen anyone die of Guillaume-Buerre.

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