Week 4 Discussion Post: On June 14th, 2021, the Court in Texas upheld Houston Methodist Hospital's decision to suspend vaccinated healthcare worker? Other healthcare organizations are likely to follow suit, requiring the Covid-19 vaccine for their healthcare workers

Post 1 : While I do not feel as though the vaccine should be mandatory, I do believe that all healthcare workers should receive the vaccine. It can be a difficult decision in determining if the vaccine should be mandatory because as a healthcare worker, I am required to get a flu vaccine every year. If I do not get it, I could be terminated. While the reasoning for people to not want to receive the COVID-19 vaccine is because it is new and there isn’t enough research as well as studies relating to potential long-term effects, the flu vaccine is never the same from year to year either, it changes every year as well. This is ultimately the same predicament, yet we mandate everyone receive a flu vaccination and healthcare workers do not typically complain regarding that. The only exception for employees to not receive the flu vaccine is if they have a religious exemption (Diaz, 2021), yet employees were able to opt out of getting the COVID-19 vaccine without any form of reasoning.

As a healthcare administrator, I would not force my employees to get a vaccine, however I would do everything I could to assist in the process of getting as many employees vaccinated as I could. The first way I would address this issue would be by ensuring that my employees would have easy access to the vaccine, meaning we would bring it to the hospital and make it readily available so employees wouldn’t even have to leave the building to get it. I would also allow employees to take the day off if they were feeling slightly unwell after receiving the vaccine as I know that can be a side effect. I also personally know some organizations were even incentivizing their employees to get the vaccine with visa gift cards or extra days off, etc. I do believe that over incentivizing is unnecessary, however if that is what gets an employee to protect themselves and those around them, then I would consider participating in those incentives as well.

While I think these tactics can be successful in getting people to get the vaccine, I do not feel as though it should be necessary. As a healthcare worker, our job is to heal and keep people healthy and safe when they come to our hospital. If we can’t even do our part in keeping ourselves safe and healthy, then how are we supposed to help and protect others in their times of need.

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Post 2 :agree with Methodist Hospital’s decision to mandate vaccination for all their workers. The US has been one of the hardest-hit countries in terms of COVID cases (34,375,615) and death count (28,640,675) respectively (“The United States”). With both metrics currently trending downward with the increased vaccination rates in the country, it is clear that COVID vaccines are effective in slowing or preventing the spread of the pandemic.

However, large populations of Americans maintain hesitation or reluctance to get vaccinated for various reasons. Historically, some minority community members share a distrust of the healthcare system due to patterns of inequities from health care providers and systems (Byrd and Clayton 2001) The COVID pandemic has also become politicized by far-right ideologies, increasing conspiracy theories around vaccinations.

Keeping a healthy population is a responsibility of society. Vaccinations from preventable, deadly diseases are a key component in population health, and should be implemented consistently through public institutions by government policy. I advocate for federal government policies mandating vaccines for all healthcare employees and encouraging the rest of the population through tax incentives.

To ensure trust and buy-in from all community members, educational campaigns around the efficacy of vaccines are critical in combatting misinformation. A key element of this educational push should recognize and highlight historical inequities in healthcare and push to correct current inequities.

As a health care administrator, I would adopt this approach by mandating vaccination for all employees, with certain exceptions if medically necessary. In tandem with advance notice of the vaccine rollout, I would offer forums and promote dialogues with health care professionals to address my employees’ questions and concerns about the vaccine.

Mandatory Vaccination Policy

Vaccinations should be mandatory for healthcare professionals, in my opinion. No one is more at risk of transmitting or disseminating infectious diseases than health care professionals. Those who work in hospitals are frequently exposed to patients as part of their mission. COVID-19 D can easily spread from individuals to healthcare staff and then back to many other sufferers on the same floor. As a result, there appear to be a number of health-care workers who are ill and thus unable to work, as well as individuals who have been exposed to viruses that they did not have when they were healthy. Most public health professionals believe that having all health care personnel vaccinated is the best solution. Wearing masks and washing their hands frequently is insufficient to keep them safe. Vaccination offers a better possibility of providing immunity, and because there are more immunized people in the community, herd immunity can develop, ultimately halting the spread of COVID in society. Vaccination also gives people a sense of purpose and their fear of COVID may be reduced (Khunti ET AL., 2021). Although it is critical to disseminate accurate immunization information, mask use and hand washing should not be discouraged. Although vaccination cannot totally restore normalcy, it can help to improve the situation and allow for a return to normalcy by providing a sense of security and immunity to the virus.

The number one responsibility of an administrator is to safeguard the health of all personnel. As a result, I would enact policies to ensure that everyone is vaccinated. Mandatory vaccination, including for COVID-19, can be philosophically warranted if there is a serious threat to public health, there is a high degree of satisfaction with the vaccine's efficacy and safety, the expected returns of vaccination programs are higher than the alternative solutions and the consequences or expenses for non-compliance are fair and reasonable (World Health Organization, 2021).

Mandatory Vaccination Policy

In my opinion, vaccine should be mandatory for healthcare professionals. This is because no one is more at risk of transmitting or disseminating infectious diseases than health care professionals. Those who work in hospitals are frequently exposed to infectious more than others. COVID-19 D can easily spread from patients to healthcare staff, which could have far-more reaching implications. Most public health professionals believe that having all health care personnel vaccinated is the best solution. Wearing masks and washing their hands frequently is insufficient to keep healthcare professional from taking vaccine safe. Another reasons why I believe vaccine should be mandatory for healthcare professionals is that vaccination offers a better possibility of providing immunity, and because there are more immunized people in the community, herd immunity can develop, ultimately halting the spread of COVID in society. Vaccination also gives people a sense of purpose and their fear of COVID may be reduced (Khunti ET AL., 2021). Although it is critical to disseminate accurate immunization information, mask use and hand washing should not be discouraged. Although vaccination cannot totally restore normalcy, it can help to improve the situation and allow for a return to normalcy by providing a sense of security and immunity to the virus.

The number one responsibility of an administrator is to safeguard the health of all personnel. As a result, I would enact policies to ensure that everyone is vaccinated. Mandatory vaccination, including for COVID-19, can be philosophically warranted if there is a serious threat to public health, there is a high degree of satisfaction with the vaccine's efficacy and safety, the expected returns of vaccination programs are higher than the alternative solutions and the consequences or expenses for non-compliance are fair and reasonable (World Health Organization, 2021).

Post 1: Responses

I agree with you post that vaccine should be mandatory for healthcare professionals. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous impacts on healthcare workers. Thus, the benefits of making vaccine mandatory outweigh the disadvantages. This is because the purpose of making vaccine mandatory is to ensure that general public health is protected. Also, I agree with you about your views about healthcare administrator. Thus, healthcare administrator should ensure that all employees are vaccinated. As such, he/ she should enforce policies that ensure that all hospital workers are vaccinated.

Post 2: Response

Your post is informative about the issues surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.  I agree that the most important thing when it comes to vaccine is to protect the health of public. Thus, mandatory vaccinations to healthcare workers help in protecting individuals and other people as well. Also, I concur with you about your views on the role of the healthcare administrator.