Do most hospitals and clinics require you to get a hepatitis B vaccine to be employed there?

Question

I will soon be looking for work as a respiratory therapist in various hospitals and clinics, and I was wondering if any require the hepatitis B vaccine. I'd like to decline getting it and avoid it.

Just to be clear, I don't have hepatitis B or C or AIDS or any such disease. I'm just not partial to the constant taking of vaccines.

Patricia,

If you think "most hospitals won't be excited about my view of vaccinations", then why do MOST DOCTORS refuse the vaccinations themselves?

Seems I'm not the one brainwashed. You're the one that has drank the kool-aid (or had it injected?) and truly believes that your government has only your best interest in mind, that they could NEVER hurt you, right?

Answer 1

http://www.thinktwice.com/

Vaccines are dangerous.

Answer 2

I'm not sure any hospital would be terrible excited about an employee with such a poorly advised view of vaccinations. And you don't take it "constantly" but in a three injection series spread over six months. There might be a booster after a period of years in some situations, but that's it.

Actually, the law in the US requires a health care institution to offer Hep B vaccination to anyone who has direct patient contanct or any contact with potentially infectious tissues or fluids. You can refuse the vaccine if you insist on being rather foolish, and will be required to sign a document saying you refused the protection and have been informed of the risks and benefits of doing so.

You may also soon be required by some healthcare institutions to recieve annual flu shots and any other vaccine that may become advisable in an outbreak.

If you are a respiratory therapist, you should be aware that you are subject to exposure to sputum with may be bloody and therefore at high potential for transmitting blood-borne pathogens like Hep B, Hep C and HIV.

Hep B is about one thousand times more contagious than HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Even a little scratch can expose you, and the vaccine is at least 85 -90% effective. If you get Hepatitis B, not only do you risk a nasty illness from the infection itself, one with a sobering fatality rate and many complications, but you also risk becoming a carrier and you have a huge increase in your risk of liver cancer. As a carrier, you would also be of some risk to your patients, your colleagues and any sexual partners as well.

While hopefully you intend to be very careful with Universal Precautions, you need to get real about accidents that may be out of your control. Confused and agitated patients may bite you, for example. I started approximately 10,000 IV's without an incident and was totally correct in precautions, but I still had a needle stick. I reached into a supply cart drawer for a pair of sterile gloves and came out with a 20g needle sicking out of my hand. Someone else was careless and I had no way to know where that needle had been.

A year of HIV and other testing was bad enough, but I was fully immunized against Hep B and had less to worry about than I would have otherwise. Refusing vaccine is franklly inexplicable to me.

Don't be brainwashed by the unscientific antivaccination quacks and fanatics and have a serious discussion with an ID specialist before you choose to reject a vaccine that is safe and effective against a nasty and preventable illness. You might also consider that viruses of any "such: disease do not care how nice you are and even those who see themselves as virtuous and careful really can get sick.

Answer 3

Anyone working in direct patient care is required to get a hepatitis B vaccine, it is a condition of employment. I also happen to know that in the hospital where I work, the physicians were allowed to opt out. (????) I would advise you to get vaccinated though. With the area of medicine you're going into, you'll be right in the line of fire of all those nasty bugs and viruses...saliva is the most efficient carrier.

Answer 4

Federal law requires that the hepatitis B vaccine be OFFERED to health care workers who have a reasonable expectation of being exposed to blood on the job. It's not required.

Of course, you could re-write your final sentence to read: "I'm just not partial to doing things that could save my life."

Answer 5

Most places require you to have it or to sign a waiver disclaiming them of responsibility for treating you if you contract the disease. I'd already had it as a teenager, so I didn't have to worry about it, even though I am a non-converter - I don't become immune to the disease when I DO get the vaccine. They can't force you to have it, though - you can decline. It's a hospital, not the military. :)

Answer 6

Where I live (Alabama) you are required to get these shots as well as a TB test. I would imagine most hospitals do.

Answer 7

fine don't get the vaccine, you are one needle stick away from being infected for life.