A recent study has shown that the US healthcare system deals with nearly 25 million cases of influenza each year. In a typical year, as many as one person in five in the US comes down with the flu, resulting in more than 200,000hospitalizations. The financial costs are huge, not least for employers. For each episode of illness, an employee typically misses between a half day and five days of work. The cost incurred due to reduced productivity and disruption to work flow; together with other indirect costs, is enormous. The best way to prevent your employees from getting the flu is to offer workplace vaccinations. Yes, you need to pay, but the fact is that workplace vaccinations actually save you money. The question you should be asking is "Can I afford not to vaccinate my workforce?" …show more content…
Most illness tends to occur in February. Ideally, vaccinations should be given at the start of the flu season, but people can still benefit from being vaccinated in December and January. As long as there is a chance of becoming infected, there is value to getting vaccinated. In addition to vaccinating all employees, you should also promote good hygiene in the workplace, primarily by organizing comprehensive hand-washing campaigns. The importance of regular hand-washing cannot be overemphasized. Where sinks are unavailable, provide hand sanitizer wipes. Also, make sure all public spaces and communal areas are cleaned regularly.
Health care is a major global issue that affects millions of people every day. In this paper I am going to review an important health care topic that includes childhood immunizations and religious exemption policies. Immunizations are one of the most cost-effective public health achievements that protect both individuals and the community as a whole. Vaccinated individuals help the community by creating what is called herd immunity for those who cannot be vaccinated due to age or current health conditions get some protection because the spread of contagious disease is contained. High vaccination rates and low incidences of diseases indicators of successful immunization programs.
“Vaccinations are causing a major upsurge in childhood diseases, adult maladies, and even deadly ailments such as Gulf War Syndrome and Lou Gehrig’s disease” (Blaylock). Every now and then an individual’s doctor calls telling them about the latest vaccine they should receive. The person immediately schedules a time to come in and get it done. But do they even give a second thought about it? Have they ever thought that maybe they do not need another vaccination? Many people have not taken the time to seriously think about the process of immunization. The truth is, there are many dangers that the average person should be unaware of. Rarely do vaccines actually accomplish what the public has been told. In fact, a lot of vaccines contain harmful substances that have been linked to disorders such as autism. The lack of education and dishonesty from doctors are putting people in danger of health problems without even realizing. Many parents feel obligated for their children to get vaccinated because of school, not knowing they have the alternative option of refusing immunization.
Although people should have the freedom to choose to be vaccinated, the public needs to be educated about the personal, economical, and social benefits of receiving the influenza vaccine. In addition, people who are at a high risk of contracting influenza as well as health care providers should be encouraged to receive an influenza vaccine in order to decrease the major health burden associated with the disease. Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is a viral infection of the respiratory system and it is characterized by abrupt onset of fever, sore throat, and nonproductive cough. Influenza is spread from person to person by inhalation of the droplets produced when a person infected with influenza coughs or sneezes. In addition, it can also be spread by contact with infected objects such as utensils.
Influenza season starts in October and can last until May. It is estimated that 36,000 people die each year from the flu. The best thing that you can do to protect yourself from the flu is to get the vaccine. It is best to get your vaccine before flu season begins. However, the vaccine will still be effective even if you get it as late as January.
Getting you flu shot make you immune system stronger for fighting bacteria and viruses that around you and that you can catch, and especially for the kids because they go to school and communicate
Influenza is very contagious and spreads rapidly from person to person. Influenza causes worldwide yearly epidemics. According to World Health organization Influenza affects 5-15% world’s population and resulting in 500,000 deaths yearly. Ottenberg stated that, in United States, an average of 200,000 were hospitalized and 36,000 died each year from influenza complications. Influenza is the sixth leading cause of death among US adults and is related to 1 in 20 death in persons older than 65 years. Disease control and prevention estimates indicate that infections like H1N1 which is one of the types of influenza, have resulted in an estimated 42 to 86 million cases and 8520 to 17620 deaths. As I mentioned earlier that infections like influenza are very contagious, they can spread easily from hcw to Patient and back to hcw. The most efficient and effective method of preventing influenza infection is vaccination(The best way to prevent influenza is with annual vaccination).(Sullivan,2010) (Gregory,Tosh &Jacobson, 2005). Motivated by a desire to actively avoid illness Influenza may increase the risk for death in people with existing heart, lung, or circulation disorders. In fact, the higher than average number of winter deaths in people with heart disease may be due only to the occurrence of influenza during those months.Vaccination provides immunity to fight against infection.To increase resistance to harm by modifying the environment to minimize preventable illness (NEED TO CHANGE WORDING)
“Seasonal Flu Shot.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA.gov, 21 Sept. 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2012
You may think Vaccinations aren’t important, but they are. One reason they are important is because by not getting vaccinated, you could be at risk of serious diseases. These diseases can include influenza, pertussis, and shingles. Another reason would be because you could increase the risk of complications such as a chronic heart disease or a weakened immune system. Also it’s important because no one has the time to get sick or ill. The last one is that you can reduce the chance of passing serious diseases to others.
The individual has the right to refuse vaccination. But how does that effect the society the individual lives in? How does this refusal effect the healthcare provider that is trained to nurture and care for life? Is it right to force vaccination on someone? These are all ethical questions raised by the individuals chose for or against vaccinations. Vaccination is a safeguard for not just the individual, but also the vulnerable members of society. If vaccinations are so important for both the individual and society, why would anyone choose to forego vaccination? Could technology and a diverse population play a role in refusal of vaccination? These are all ethical questions raised by the individuals chose to forego vaccination. What, if anything
Influenza can be introduced and spread into an extended-care facility by newly admitted residents, health care staff and by visitors. Residents of long-term care facilities may experience severe and fatal illness during influenza outbreaks. Preventing transmission of influenza viruses and different infectious agents inside health care settings, needs a comprehensive approach that includes: vaccination, testing, infection management, and antiviral treatment (Unknown, 2013).
Currently, one cannot explore the news without coming across the topic of the swine flu, scientifically known as H1N1. Swine flu is a respiratory infection derived from the influenza virus. The virus contains genetic materials from human, swine, and avian flu viruses. It was first identified in spring 2009, and since then has spread rapidly across the globe. The infection’s spread has been verified as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. As soon as the swine flu virus was isolated, scientists quickly developed a swine flu vaccine. Four vaccines have been approved by the FDA for the prevention of the swine flu. The vaccines will be ready for distribution in October 2009. Now the question is: To vaccinate, or not to vaccinate? Millions of people are now preparing to answer this question.
Even though medical advances in the 21st century are far better than they were in 1918, there is still the problem for dealing with the sheer number of patients that could be infected by a flu pandemic. Without the ability to increase medical resources like doctors, PAs, nurses, hospital beds, medicine and medical supplies the healthcare system would be overwhelmed and could possibly
Using good hand hygiene is a start to making sure the patient environment is safe. “Handwashing is a fundamental principle and practice in the prevention, control, and reduction of healthcare-acquired infections” (Bjerke, 2004, p. 1). Hand hygiene aids in infection control, being as most hospital acquired infections are due to improper or absence of hand hygiene. Fox, Wavra, Drake, Mulligan, Jones, Bennett, and Bader (2015) suggest that 2.5 million deaths occur from hospital-acquired infections and of those deaths, 90,000 were preventable if the workers in healthcare would have used proper hand hygiene. Piece of mind is a mutual benefit of using hand hygiene in the healthcare setting. A nurse benefits from using hand hygiene because it would reduce the risk of that nurse contaminating other patients when going from patient room to patient room. A patient benefits from using hand hygiene because it reduces the risk of that patient spreading infection from one part of the body to another. Piece of mind is the benefit for knowing that patients and nurses are protected in healthcare facilities by using hand hygiene. Patients and nurses will benefit from using hand hygiene because it is a simple way to aid in keeping the individual healthy. The hands carry many germs and constant adherence to good hand hygiene will decrease the risk of people catching illnesses and contaminating shared surfaces (door handles, tables, and
Health promotion is a vital component to the healthy of a society, is a key component of Healthy People 2020, and is a major role of the nurse. Health promotion is achieved through education and preventive strategies. Vaccination is a health promotion activity in that its purpose is to prevent disease (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). Through vaccination, it is possible to significantly reduce the incidents of many diseases. Diseases that can be prevented through use of vaccinations are are referred to as vaccine preventable diseases. Some of the commonly vaccinated infections include polio, measles, Haemophilus Influenzae type b, pertussis, pneumococcal, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, and mumps (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013).
Pandemics cause an increase in medicine and the health care industry. When a pandemic outbreak occurs hospitals are overflowing, and researchers are hard at work searching for a cure. The Spanish Flu was no different. Doctors stated they were too busy trying to fight the disease to record the overflow of patients. Drug stores businesses increased during the Spanish Flu while other businesses were failing. Hospitals were so overcrowded that other buildings had to be converted into hospitals. Although the health care industry was booming; it suffered shortages of workers just like other industries, when the physicians themselves contracted the flu. Due to the shortage of physicians some hospitals were staffed with medical school students.