ANA Releases Letter Urging Nurses to Get Vaccinated

 

As the influenza season begins, the American Nurses Association (ANA) calls on all registered nurses to get the seasonal influenza vaccine. After all, as nurses, we have an ethical obligation not only to protect ourselves, but also to protect our patients and our families from influenza illness. ANA has long emphasized to nurses that vaccination is one simple step that everyone should take. Simultaneously, during the 2009-2010 influenza season, this nation is also facing a major health threat caused by the H1N1 virus.

 

The above is an excerpt from a letter by President Rebecca Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR, of the American Nurses Association (ANA) urging nurses to get vaccinated for both the seasonal flu and the H1N1 virus (swine flu). To read the full letter, click here: ANA Letter to Nurses.

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2009-11-03T12:40:36-05:00November 3rd, 2009|nursing perspective|2 Comments
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AJN Vaccine Poll Results

Update: Oct. 21: Thanks to everyone who took part in the vaccination poll (interestingly, only a fraction of those who visited the poll actually answered the simple yes/no question). The poll is now closed. The results: approximately 170 respondents (nurses?) answered the question “should the H1N1 vaccine be mandated for nurses?” Of these, 77% answered “no” and 23% answered “yes.”

Judging from comments we’ve received in response to other posts (here, here, and here) about the H1N1 vaccine, we surmise that not every nurse who answered no is actually opposed to getting the vaccine. They just don’t want to be told they have to get it. Others, of course (as some of the strongly worded comments left in response to this poll show) are entirely against it, whether it’s mandated or not. And others are wholeheartedly for it, firm believers that decisions made by experts using available evidence usually, if not always, lead to benefits for us all.

But there’s obviously a lot more to say on this topic, and we’ll be posting about it soon.

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2009-10-26T12:04:40-04:00October 13th, 2009|nursing perspective|3 Comments
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Mandating Flu Vaccines for Nurses

By Diana J. Mason, RN, PhD, editor-in-chief emeritus

Yesterday, nurses and other health care workers from New York State went to the state capitol in Albany to protest a regulation issued by the New York State Department of Health mandating that all health care workers get vaccinated for both the seasonal flu and for the pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza by November 30th or lose their jobs. Deborah Gerhardt, RN, who was interviewed by USA Today, says she may have to lose her job because she doesn’t have confidence in the safety of the new H1N1 vaccine: “Just because the FDA approved the H1N1 vaccine ‘doesn’t mean it’s safe in my book.'”

mandatingflushotsNew York State Commissioner of Health Richard Daines, MD, disagrees, and followed up an open letter to health care workers released on September 24th with a press conference to defend the new policy. The New York State Nurses Association, which urges nurses to get vaccinated but is against mandatory vaccinations, wrote their own open letter in response.

Citing one study of health care workers during a mild flu season that showed that 23% of the workers showed evidence of having had the flu that season but that 59% of these said they didn’t have the flu that year, Daines said that his concern is that workers are carrying the virus and exposing at-risk patients without realizing it. When challenged on whether family members and other visitors represent an equally great threat to patient […]

2016-11-21T13:22:03-05:00September 30th, 2009|nursing perspective|7 Comments
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Vaccine Wars Ensue as H1N1 Mutates – Just Alarmist Sci-Fi Fantasy?

Picture this: in early September of this year, the novel H1N1 influenza virus mutates into a strain that can quickly lead to wracking fevers, violent vomiting, respiratory failure, dehydration, and death. It is also highly resistant to existing antiviral agents. The first cases of this new strain are identified after a spate of deaths in a Kansas City nursing home as well as among members of a church choir in the same city. The new strain quickly shows up in a number of major metropolitan areas in the U.S. and then in several European countries. As hospitals are swamped and the number of deaths rises unabated, borders are sealed between countries—but it's too late to stop the new strain from spreading as the fall and winter flu season gets into full swing.

2016-11-21T13:25:13-05:00July 16th, 2009|Nursing|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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