Nursing

Vaccine refusal by a healthcare worker – is it a disability?

On June 5, 2018, the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a District Court’s decision to dismiss a case filed by a nurse who alleged she was terminated for refusing a Tdap vaccine for medical reasons. The focus of the decision was not the vaccine refusal per se; the focus was what are the pleading standards in a claim alleging a failure to provide a reasonable accommodation of a disability. While the specific claim of the nurse’s vaccine refusal is unconvincing in many ways, I think the Third Circuit (“the court”) was right to allow her case to proceed at least a bit further.

For the purpose of the discussion of any motion to dismiss, the assumption is that the plaintiff’s factual allegations about her vaccine refusal choices are true. Therefore, what I am describing as “the facts” is the nurse’s version. Fact-finding may show that not all these allegations are provable. Read More »Vaccine refusal by a healthcare worker – is it a disability?

Poll–healthcare workers and vaccination

by Michael Simpson
2015-01-26
3 Comments
Flu vaccine, Infectious disease, Nursing, Poll, Vaccines

I just wrote a typical Skeptical Raptor screed against vaccine deniers who are supposed to be protecting patients. What do you think?

Nurses who refuse to vaccinate, harm patients

There’s an irresponsible antivaccination group called Nurses Against Mandatory Vaccines whose sole purpose is to oppose vaccinating nurses and other healthcare workers against vaccine preventable diseases. They claim that they are opposed to mandatory vaccination, yet if you look into… Read More »Nurses who refuse to vaccinate, harm patients

Student Nurse Perspective: The Flu Vaccine.

Ingvar Árni Ingvarsson, a student nurse in the UK, wrote an excellent perspective on vaccines from his nursing eyeballs, which he graciously allowed me to re-post here.

Little intro might be handy for this. This post has been on my mind for a long time now and finally I decided to pull my finger out and actually write it. What is to follow will be a mixture of factual, scientific and anecdotal writings. Because that is the way I roll. I have been itching to write something, anything about vaccinations for a little bit now, but so far decided not to because there are so many out there who do it and do a better job of it then I would dream of, so I’ll list some. Skeptical Raptor, Respectful Insolence, Red Wine & Apple Sauce, Just The Vax and many many more.

Prior to starting my nursing course I was very much into my slightly alternative medicine. I was on the fence regarding vaccines, not just the flu vaccine but all vaccines. Now that I think back on it I’m not really sure why. It was never really something that I thought about properly until I started my university course. What was probably a turning point for me was the amount of patients over 70 I came across who had to use callipers and wheelchairs because they contracted polio when they were kids. I have never come across a patient under 70 who has had polio. Never. This sort of got me thinking about the importance of vaccination, and if there is one thing that I have learned since starting uni is that evidence is the key.Read More »Student Nurse Perspective: The Flu Vaccine.