The looming influenza season has put America close to panic. With the potentially fatal H1N1 set to strike this winter, public-health authorities have proposed mandating vaccinations against the swine flu for healthcare workers, including nurses. This has met with firm resistance from many registered nurses and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) has issued a statement offering alternatives to mandating the vaccination and has requested a meeting with hospital executives regarding the issue.
The CNA/NNOC is concerned that nurses be given acceptable alternatives to vaccination. They have been mandated to use surgical masks at all times if they do not receive the vaccine. However, nurses find these masks to be ineffective. They have proposed that N95 masks be used as an alternative to vaccination as they would reduce transmission of the virus, unlike the masks the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) are requiring. The organization wants focus to be put on preventing transmission rather than punishing workers who object to vaccination.
?HCA knows full well that the surgical masks they are attempting to force on nurses don?t protect anyone from the H1N1 virus, they just provide the illusion of protection, and that may be even more dangerous,? explained Dorothy Higgins, an ICU RN and chief nurse representative at the HCA's Regional Medical Center in San Jose, CA. ?HCA won?t save the life of a single patient by going to war with its nurses. We are calling on HCA to work with CNA/NNOC to meet the highest standards set by the CDC to help us stop the transmission of this deadly virus.?
Along with the HCA, MedStar, the state of New York, and others are requiring vaccination of hospital employees. Exemptions are to be allowed for workers with medical reasons to avoid vaccination, like egg allergies or risk factors for Guilliame-Barre syndrome. Many organizations plan to allow exemptions for religious reasons, but New York state says it will allow no religious exemptions. Healthcare workers for these organizations who refuse the vaccine may face disciplinary action.
The MedStar mandate will affect over 25,000 workers, including nurses, orderlies, janitors, food-services employees doctors, suppliers, and volunteers. New York's mandate will affect a whopping 522,000 employees.
New York healthcare workers aren't taking this mandate well. They rallied on September 29, 2009 at the State Capitol in Albany in protest of these regulations. The rally corresponded with a meeting between Dr. Gary Null, speaking on behalf of state healthcare workers, and the State Department of Health.accination.
Ralph Fucetola JD, of the Natural Solutions Foundation Trustee and Counsel, stated in a press release, "We are particularly concerned that the exemption section is insufficient to protect significant civil rights. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Acts requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for employees? religious beliefs. The regulations fail to address this and we want the Department of Health to make it clear that the religious exemption is not being abrogated."