Wellness

[Irshgrl31201]

Good. 

I can understand people not getting vaccines for legitimate medical reasons but I don't understand anti vaxxers who spread false information and refuse to vaccinate their children.

Can you get the flu if you have had a flu shot? Yes, but getting a flu shot has been proven to lessen the symptons. Also according to studies more than 75% of children who died from the flu were not vaccinated. 

I do know that Australia had put a bill for a vote that would not allow parents of children who refused to vaccinate them any funds or tax credits they might be eligible for unless there was a valid medical reason. I wish the US would do the same thing. 

[Moonchilde]

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@151949 wrote:

I think this hospital has gotten away with this SO FAR but the legal system runs very slowly and I doubt the last of this has been heard.

Also what hospital system can have sufficient staffing after firing 50 nurses?

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Not all the workers fired were RNs. It could include LVNs, Respiratory Therapists, X-Ray techs, whatever.  

[Moonchilde]

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@Jersey Born wrote:

I disagree with hospital/long term health care facility policies that force any medical product on its workers.  People have valid religious, medical, and even philosophical reasons for refusing medical products of any kind.  Vaccines a person takes do not stop germs from circulating in the environment.  There is plenty of research out there that taking an annual flu shot leads to "vaccine-enhanced respiratory disease," so for some people, they not only will not experience a lesser bout with flu should they contract influenza post vaccination, they will experience a much more severe bout of the flu.  Annual uptake of the flu shot also leads to an increase in people who contract influenza, not because they get the flu from the shot, but because while their immune system is responding to the antigens and other components of the shot, they become more susceptible to the microbes they are exposed to in their environment, including any circulating influenza strains.  There is research from Dr. Edward Belongia, Dr. Danuta Skowronski, Dr. Michael Osterholm, Dr. Peter Doshi, and many others, who all  research influenza, and influenza vaccine efficacy, specifically.  I will not post any of it here, but please feel free to look it up yourself on Pubmed if you would like.

I am not trying to rile anyone up, and I will not post anything further on this highly contentious topic after this comment for that very reason, but there is a real difference between the relative risk ratio (RRR) and the absolute risk ratio (ARR) of a medical product when one discusses the efficacy of the flu shot.  What the media, doctors, and public health officials are promoting to the public are RRR figures, and not the dismally poor ARR figures, which reflect the true efficacy rates for a vaccine.  When we are told the flu shot is 40% efficatious for a given year, that figure might be as low as 1%, if the ARR, and not the RRR figure, were to be used.  If you don't know about this difference between RRR and ARR, please look it up for yourself and understand that there is an appreciable difference between the two that you need to know about, as we all should have the right to make our own medical decisions for our own bodies based upon actual science, independent of industry promotion and taint, and real ARR figures for flu shot efficacy that are not exaggerated so that they are more appealing to the masses for advertising and increased sale purposes.  We all deserve and need the truth, in order to make the best medical decisions for ourselves and our families.  No employer should have the right to take that away that precious right from us for any reason at all.  If and when we are sick, we should be able to stay home and take time off from work to recover.  Going to work sick, or not washing one's hands, even if a flu shot has been taken, is pointless in helping any patient staying in a hospital.   

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In the state where this occurred, medical and religious reasons were allowed; those workers were allowed to refuse. The philosophical “I just don’t want to and you can’t make me” workers are the ones who are OOL - as IMO it should be. These are healthcare workers in direct contact will the very ill, those most immune-compromised.

[blueluna]

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@Irshgrl31201 wrote:

Good. 

I can understand people not getting vaccines for legitimate medical reasons but I don't understand anti vaxxers who spread false information and refuse to vaccinate their children.

Can you get the flu if you have had a flu shot? Yes, but getting a flu shot has been proven to lessen the symptons. Also according to studies more than 75% of children who died from the flu were not vaccinated. 

I do know that Australia had put a bill for a vote that would not allow parents of children who refused to vaccinate them any funds or tax credits they might be eligible for unless there was a valid medical reason. I wish the US would do the same thing. 

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Great post @Irshgrl31201!  Agree w you 100%.

Great thread @Moonchilde!

[chrystaltree]

Good to see that they didn't cave in.  I work in healthcare and we've had that policy for about 10 or 12 years.  Get the flu shot or seek employment elsewhere. In the early days, some nurses did lose their jobs but after that, people just get the flu shots and get on with taking care of patients and doing their jobs.    The only exceptions are for medical reasons or religious reasons and those who are exempted for those reasons, are taken off patient care floors during flu season.  They are assigned other duties that do involve patient care.  

[chrystaltree]

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@151949 wrote:

This would be a violation of your rights. No one can force any medical care on someone against their will.If this is correct - it should go to the supreme court.If they fired me for this I'd be on the phone to my lawyer before I got out of their parking lot.

Huh?  What the heck are you talking about?  No hospital forces any employee to get a flu shot.  People who don't comply, simply have to seek employment elsewhere.  And they know that when they accept the job!!  It's standard throughout the country now and has been for a while.  The courts have sided with the hospitals every time because it's in the best interest of the patients.  

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[garmer]

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@151949 wrote:

This would be a violation of your rights. No one can force any medical care on someone against their will.If this is correct - it should go to the supreme court.If they fired me for this I'd be on the phone to my lawyer before I got out of their parking lot.

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You are a nurse. How could you not know about this? A hep series is also required in our local hospital. You either comply or move on.

Service men/women also have to take certain vaccines. School children have to have many.

What makes you think that the SCOTUS would give health care workers a pass?

[sissy2]

I register the patients, I don't get the flu shot, and as long as we are 6ft

away from patient we don't need a mask.  My boss hasn't pushed the mask

on me as of yet.  Which is kinda funny I think by sharing pens, or handling

their credit cards or ins. cards germs are more hand to hand spreading.  So many of 

my co workers who got the flu shot got sick, or at least felt bad a few days after

the shot.  Most of my co workers got the flu shot just so they wouldn't have to wear the

mask, not because they believe in the shot.  

I find it interesting they even know what flu will be in season to make the vaccine (a year ahead of time), or

come Janurary when it was the wrong strain of flu they thought we'd get.

[chrystaltree]

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@sissy2 wrote:

I register the patients, I don't get the flu shot, and as long as we are 6ft

away from patient we don't need a mask.  My boss hasn't pushed the mask

on me as of yet.  Which is kinda funny I think by sharing pens, or handling

their credit cards or ins. cards germs are more hand to hand spreading.  So many of 

my co workers who got the flu shot got sick, or at least felt bad a few days after

the shot.  Most of my co workers got the flu shot just so they wouldn't have to wear the

mask, not because they believe in the shot.  

I find it interesting they even know what flu will be in season to make the vaccine (a year ahead of time), or

come Janurary when it was the wrong strain of flu they thought we'd get.

You don't work in a healthcare setting, not even in patient registration.  This post is ridiculous joke with so many holes in it, you could fly a 747 through it....lol   All you did is embarrass yourself.  Confine you fake stories to things you at least know a little about....lol

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[skuggles]

I don't think institutions should have the legal authority to force anyone to get an injection. I understand their reasoning, but  receiving the flu shot is no guarantee that you won't get it. It does not provide certain immunity against all flu, just  promises the ones in the injection. If the employees had signed a contract agreeing to get it before hiring it would be different. There is always new information to be discovered changing our opinions about the efficacy of this vaccine. I think the problem arises when people refuse it "just because". They are unable to produce reasons that uses science to back their refusals. That doesn't mean they don't exist. It just means that they can easily be targeted for termination, because their lack of education in the matter limits their ability to appeal a big brother policy. You must be armed with science to argue with the science being used by the institutions. I believe it should be a personal choice. Institutions need to provide ample time off/sick pay and ample coverage for its employees who succumb to the flu. That would help with containment if that is their true concern.