Should healthcare workers be forced to get annual flu vaccines Research Paper

Should healthcare workers be forced to get annual flu vaccines - Research Paper Example However, for purposes of the article in question, the researchers attempt to answer how useful the flu shot is from a broad perspective of its ability to positively affect overall shareholder health. Moreover, the article makes a case for the manner in which the HCW (healthcare workers) should engage with the notion of the flu shot as a means to bolster their own health as well as provide for the safety and health of the patients they come in contact with. As such, the dual nature of the way in which healthcare workers must engage with this issue has to do not only with their responsibility to their own health but the responsibility they share with their profession and the individuals that rely on their careful attention to promoting healthcare best practices by ensuring they are as disease free as possible so as not to infect any of the patients they come into contact with. Clinical digest. Nurses more likely to take flu vaccination if they believe there will be a personal benefit. (2011). Nursing Standard, 26(12), 17. This article approaches the topic of healthcare workers obtaining flu vaccines from the perspective of gain that a potential flu shot might bring to the worker. In this way, the article discusses the construct of a dual paradigm that exists between the healthcare worker actively wanting to immunize themselves as opposed to the perceived gain that they might experience from this due to a reduced risk of infection from incoming patients. In this way, the article brings to the reader’s attention that although all nurses must swear the Hippocratic Oath, the fact of the matter is that selfish motivations still continue to define the manner in which healthcare professionals engage with decisions that should attempt to balance both the needs of the individual and the concern for patient health. In this way, the full breadth and scope of the issue is seen as something that must either be incumbent upon the individual healthcare professional or wo uld necessarily need to be mandated by the entity which employs them. As the authors note, both alternative measures have their distinct drawbacks. Firstly, with respect to the employer mandating such a course of action, a host of legal issues would dominate such a choice. Secondly, with respect to the individual themselves being responsible for self-administration, the degree to which this would actually occur may be insignificant. Evans, G., & Marill, M. (2012). A house divided: A muddled mandate on health care worker flu shots goes to HHS. Hospital Infection Control & Prevention, 39(3), 25-30. This particular article discusses the legal difficulties surrounding employer mandated flu shots. As previously discussed, when an employer mandates such a course of action, they are acting in the best interest of the patients they will be serving; however, many issues arise in forcing a given employee to take such a course of action. No the least of these issues is the fact that by demandi ng such an action from their shareholders, health care management is oftentimes venturing into the gray zone of what an employer can require of its employees. Due to the host of new healthcare legislation that has recently been passed in the form of HIPPA and FMLA, the extent to which employers can be involved in the medical practices of their employees is severely restricted. However, the case of mandatory flu shots, as these