Weekly Poll: Flu shot or mask?
Last week we wrote about a roundabout way that some major hospitals are using to “force” flu shots for healthcare workers. Essentially employees have the choice to get the flu shot or wear a mask for the entirety of their shift. Think Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, only it’s a procedural mask.
Other hospitals that have tried to enforce flu vaccines have run into trouble with unions (see Iowa University Hospitals and Clinics in that same post). Unless you have no union employees or the vaccine is state mandated, its difficult to make the flu shot a requirement of employment, which is why hospitals have turned to this loophole for help.
We’ll leave it up to you. Would you rather get a flu shot or wear a mask for every shift? Take our poll and as always, comments are welcome.
« Can Hospitals and Physician Practices Achieve a Win-Win on N95 Respirators? | Home | Rapping about H1N1 flu prevention »
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OSHA Healthcare Advisor Poll
The OSHA Healthcare Advisor Poll is our weekly questionnaire that is updated every Monday. It is a great opportunity for you to let us know what is going on at your facility, while also getting a look at what your peers have to say. Every week we will post a new question related to healthcare safety. As always, if you have any burning questions of your own, post them in the comments section below and it could become a featured poll question.
OSHA Healthcare Advisor Poll has written 49 posts.
Comments
Taking the flu vaccine not only protects you, but your family as well.
I will get the flu shot again this year and will take the H1N1 when it is offered. I will do this, however, because it is my choice and not mandated by my employer. At least the option of wearing a mask for the entire shift allows employees to make that choice. By the way Bravo! to the employers who are still offering the flu shots to employees free of charge and haven’t chosen that venue to cut healthcare costs!
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