Fancy a shot?

I don’t like needles and become cold and clammy when one comes anywhere near me. I have no such reaction when injecting others, which is fortunate as that may have been quite career limiting. If I have a choice between potential death or illness or putting up with the brief uncomfortableness of a vaccination, I choose vaccination, but I do insist on a ‘I’ve been brave’ sticker.

Occupational vaccination has been a contentious topic for nursing in recent years for a variety of reasons. The introduction and revocation of legislation making vaccination a condition of deployment along with a variety of less than reliable stories including vaccinations inserting microchips under our skin, have not helped nursing staff make informed autonomous decisions regarding vaccination. The main aims of occupation vaccination programmes for nursing staff are to protect us and to protect people in our care.  

Employers have a legal responsibility to assess the risk of acquiring infection in the workplace and offer vaccination free of charge to their employees. [Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 SI 2002 No. 2677, reg 7 (6) (f)]  To aid with this assessment the UKHSA have included a schedule of the vaccinations generally recommended for health and care workers in the Green Book.  However, we are still hearing that some employers are failing to offer vaccination free of charge to members particularly against Hepatitis B. While smaller independent health and social care employers may not have their own inhouse occupational health teams, they still have legal responsibilities to protect nursing staff and make available required vaccinations without charge. 

I contracted the highly contagious and common childhood illness chickenpox (varicella) aged 30, a less fashionable and potentially more serious age to get it (I made a full recovery).  I felt terrible, but suffered in silence and was not a burden to anyone! My husband has a different recollection! We had to cancel our holiday which just added to my misery. The day before my chickenpox rash developed (I was unknowingly contagious at this time), I had spent time in an enclosed room preaching the virtues of good infection prevention and control to nursing staff. I went into a guilt spiral wondering how many people I had infected during this training session, the irony. 

The varicella vaccination has been recommended for non-immune health and care workers since 2003, however, I was unaware of this prior to my infection and was not offered vaccination by my employer at the time. Its important for our own health to understand what vaccinations are recommended for us, the Green Book is a good guide, but also speaking with employers about what vaccinations they have assessed are required and how they are making these available free of charge. We must look after ourselves to be able to look after others.