Evidence Based Project Literature Review

To get the flu vaccine or not to get the flu vaccine? This is a huge controversial question millions of Americans today ask themselves every year. There are many myths that come along with the topic of the flu vaccine that lead to people questioning the effectiveness of the medication. Safety for our families and loved ones is what we aim to achieve, but what are the pros and cons of this vaccine? What are the consequences and what are myths, but most importantly: what are the reasons we should get it in the first place? In this paper you will learn the many reasons for the flu vaccination and how it affects different populations beginning with children all the way to the elderly population. First of all, what is the flu

Influenza results in excess of two hundred thousand hospitalizations in the United States (Tosh & Jacobson, 2010). Mortality rates for influenza related illness have risen. The purpose of this paper is to discuss mandated healthcare influenza vaccination in healthcare workers and will examine a Cochrane review summary, mandated healthcare influenza vaccination, and healthcare worker immunization practices in a Veterans Affairs Health Center.

As a result, the burden placed on the health care system is significantly reduced. Therefore, people at a high risk of contracting influenza should seriously consider being vaccinated. Evidence suggests that educating high-risk people about the influenza vaccine is worthwhile. For example, during the influenza season of 2000-2001, 70% of adults 65 years of age and older received the flu shot. This suggests

Last year, only twenty-six percent of eighteen to forty-nine year olds got the flu shot (Singh, 2014). With an average of 200,000 people hospitalized annually due to flu-related symptoms, these low vaccination rates are generating serious health risks among young adults all over the country (National Consumers League, 2013). This winter, at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., the average age of people hospitalized with influenza was 28.5 years old, and of those that ended up in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, only two of the twenty-two had received the flu vaccination (Singh, 2014). The primary reason that young adults do not get the influenza vaccination is that they believe that they are invincible and influenza is not a serious illness (Singh, 2014). One in five Americans who do not receive the influenza vaccination claims that influenza is not a serious illness (National Consumers League, 2013). Of the Americans who do not get vaccinated, forty-five percent cited their good health as a rationale for bypassing vaccination (National Consumers League, 2013). This may be partly due to the targeted measures by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to increase vaccination rates among children and the elderly. In comparison to the twenty-six percent of young adults that were vaccinated, 56.6% of children (ages six months to seventeen years old) and 66.2% of seniors (ages 65 and older) were vaccinated. When targeted measures are used, they work. The problem

For the past ten years, we at Virginia Mason Medical Center have been implementing mandatory influenza vaccination. This is due to the flu vaccination being able to reduce flu illnesses and prevent flu-related hospitalizations. According to the Center for Control and Disease (CDC, 2014) during 2012-2013, an estimated 45% of the U.S population got vaccinated, helping to prevent an estimated 6.6 million flu-related illness, with 3.2 million flu-related medical visits, almost 80,000 hospitalizations and roughly $87 billion dollars in total economic burden. Influenza is extremely contagious and each year on an average 5%-20% of the U.S population get the flu with tens of thousands die from a flu-related illness. Therefore, many health cares setting along with Virginia Mason Medical Center is mandating all their healthcare workers to get the influenza vaccination. Consequently, making annual influenza vaccination requirement for healthcare workers a continuing and debatable health topic. The potential of getting the vaccination have great benefits to healthcare professionals, their patients, and their families by

Immunization rates still remain low and hospitals that have voluntary programs in place, are not seeing the results they would if mandatory vaccine programs were put in to place. A mandatory influenza vaccine policy is the best solution to this issue and long overdue. Health care-associated influenza occurrences are becoming more common as it contributes to patient mortality and morbidity (The American Academy of Pediatrics, 2010). Thus, proving even further the need to prevent and control influenza by putting the health and safety of our patients first.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “It's estimated that 90 percent of seasonal flu-related deaths and more than 60 percent of seasonal flu-related hospitalizations in the United States each year occur in people 65 years and older “ (2011).The CDC advises that the best way to prevent and control the spread of influenza each year is by the use of vaccinnations. In effort to control and prevent influenza epidemics, the CDC uses the epidemiological process to predict the strain of the virus that will be most relevant to the population and this data is used to formulate influenza vaccinations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011).

The influenza vaccination in not only beneficial to recipients but also those that come in contact with the individuals exposed to or at risk for contracting influenza. Health care workers are at a constant risk of exposure to various diseases and illness including influenza. An emergency such as a vaccination shortage for influenza will not only affect at risk individuals but spread rapidly to all those exposed without knowledge or a-symptomatic at time of encounter. Health care workers will be exposed in physician offices, hospitals, emergency care or urgent care centers with heightened possibility of spreading the illness (CDC, 2015). Health care workers are not limited to the obvious: physicians or nurses but also, therapists, EMS,

Annually there are a number of children who contract the influenza during the influenza season that results in an increase in costs in pediatric office visits and antibiotic and other medications consumption and also in a significant increase in absences from school and work. Thus influenza vaccination of children can help reduce the number of visit to pediatric office,  hospitalizations, and help prevent the spread of influenza in the wider community. Moreover vaccinating children is cost effective when considering all the cost of treatment for influenza and its complications. Therefore yearly vaccination of children with the inactivated influenza vaccine save  parent money and time away from the pediatric clinic. Influenza vaccine does not

In recent years encouragement to get flu shots has become a yearly mantra. Elderly, children six months to two years, health care workers and immune-deficient people are urged in the strongest terms to go to their doctors or clinics and get a flu shot. This group encompasses about 98 million people. In the fall of 2004 this was in the forefront of American and to some extent the Western World media with the shortage of this flu seasons vaccine. Current medical wisdom states that flu shots are safe, effective and prevent mortality. A recent study published by The Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA) has brought the current wisdom into question. On February 14, 2005 JAMA

Each year 6-20% of U.S. residents are infected by influenza and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized due to complications (Klepser, Corn, Schmidt, Dering-Anderson, & Klepser, 2015). Influenza has a huge impact on not only the health of our nation, but economically, as well. Studies show that the single most effective way to prevent the spread of influenza is to vaccinate. The CDC recommends that all children over 6 months old to be vaccinated against influenza yearly (CDC, n.d.). Seldom have there been medical advancements that have impacted the health of billions of people. One such important medical advancement is the invention of vaccines. At the end of the 20th century, the CDC published its list of

In the elderly (P), does the flu vaccine (I) compared to no vaccine (C) reduce the incidence of the flu (O) during flu season(T)?

Influenza, as stated above, is a preventable spreadable infection. The goal of this education session was to expand the knowledge of long-term residents on vaccination against influenza. In a preliminary meeting, it was found that over 15 residents had refused this years’ influenza vaccination. The objectives of the teaching plan included: identifying signs and symptoms of influenza, discuss both positive and negative feels during the vaccine, identify exclusion criteria to receiving the vaccine, and demonstrate arm exercises to prevent soreness after vaccination (“Government”, 2014).

Another way to prevent pneumonia is to get vaccinated. There are two vaccines that are approved for adults one is called the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and the other is called the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. It is recommended for people over the age of 19 to receive the conjugate vaccine. The polysaccharide vaccine is recommended for adults 19 to 64 who qualify for the conjugate vaccine (Hess, pg.866). According to The American Lung Association, getting a flu shot every year can be one of the best ways to prevent seasonal influenza leading to the prevention of pneumonia.

Background & Audience Relevance: Influenza is an infection that can affect anyone around the world. Am quite sure almost everyone, if not all of us, have been infected with influenza at some point in our lives.