Introduction
Mandatory flu vaccination in New York State aims to reduce the prevalence rate of infection in the state. Therefore, realizing and sustaining optimal vaccination coverage among public members and healthcare workers helps to protect patients, general members, and healthcare staff and minimize infection burden and associated healthcare costs (Trish et al. 2019). Besides a mandatory influenza vaccination, New York State has equally rolled out compulsory immunization of diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, rubella, hepatitis B, and mumps.
Mandatory influenza immunization in New York State has significantly improved infection control. The state witnessed major steps in reducing influenza prevalence and enhancing public health outcomes. For instance, the mortality rate associated with influenza has diminished. Most healthcare workers have also enjoyed quality health, evidenced by reduced hospitalizations. Additionally, the New York Department of Health implemented and emphasized a public health policy, calling upon public members to ensure that children six months and above receive influenza vaccination by December 31, 2022.
Literature Search
The New York state’s health department enforced the mandatory flu vaccine policy to ensure all children receive adequate health protection and improve public health outcomes. Besides children’s vaccination, the state has encouraged adult vaccination to protect the adult population (Trish & Thomas, 2019). Similarly, mandatory influenza vaccination of healthcare workers has enabled the state’s healthcare department to protect its healthcare workforce effectively. Previous studies indicated that immunization would minimize infection transmission. Also, it will protect healthcare workers from contracting the virus from patients. Alternatively, some patients could also contract the virus from healthcare workers. Therefore, mandatory vaccination was a public health policy intended to protect everyone from the virus and enhance public health outcomes.
The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology recommended a mandatory of healthcare workers as a strategy to prevent flu infection. Therefore, different states carried out vaccination to their entire healthcare workforce. Not only were the employed healthcare workers affected, but also the incoming employees had to produce a flu vaccination vaccine as one of the job qualifications. Studies indicated that this new intervention would significantly help to curb the spread of respiratory disease. Therefore, it would help healthcare workers operate without fear of contracting the virus (Megan et al., 2020). Similarly, healthcare workers would provide services to patients without developing a fear of infecting the patients or getting the virus from patients. Also, the healthcare policy required healthcare workers with flu-like symptoms to stay away from the rest, including patients, till they get the appropriate vaccination or treatment.
Disease control organizations such as the Center for Disease Control have also emphasized the need for mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers. Consequently, states like New York have upgraded the initial measures to ensure disease prevention and control become a priority. Implementing compulsory vaccination will benefit healthcare workers, patients, and public members (Edmond, 2019). It limits disease spread between the healthcare workforce, patients, and other general members. Vaccination has helped to improve healthcare workers’ performance in care settings due to low absenteeism (Megan et al. 2020). Lastly, it has greatly helped to improve mortality and morbidity rates in healthcare settings. Healthcare workers who have not received the vaccine must wear protective masks when attending to patients to prevent virus transmission (Edmond, 2019). Even though there have been several critiques of the move requiring proof of mandatory vaccination during the employment of healthcare workers, the policy has helped a lot.
Trend/Issue
Implementing mandatory vaccination has gained momentum and propelled public health goals in the sector. For instance, vaccinating healthcare workers has greatly enabled American states like New York to achieve excellent health outcomes (Trish & Thomas, 2019). The healthcare workforce can operate effectively and achieve more productivity. The healthcare workers can interact freely among themselves and with the patients, knowing that they are adequately protected. Similarly, mandatory vaccination of children and public members has helped to reduce disease prevalence and morbidity and mortality rates in the state.
Healthcare Setting
Implementing a mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers in New York State will benefit the healthcare workforce. It directly impacts the healthcare staff since it will adequately protect them from the disease and enhance their productivity. The disease threatens the health of healthcare workers and patients (Edmond, 2019). Healthcare workers must get the vaccination to protect themselves and their fellow workers. Also, healthcare workers must conduct vaccination for public members and patients in care settings. These measures will help to reduce the disease prevalence and minimize death and morbidity rates.
Management Techniques
Healthcare management plays an instrumental in enforcing mandatory vaccination against influenza. First, the management has to select and recruit competent healthcare workers who can implement the public health policy across all care settings. Healthcare workers must understand the need for mandatory vaccination. They must set health goals, including the rate at which they intend to reduce disease prevalence, courtesy of vaccination (Edmond, 2019). Similarly, the healthcare management must set additional public health policies or guidelines supporting mandatory immunization. For instance, it must focus on public health needs, death rates, and influenza-related morbidity. The management must then formulate and implement effective mitigation guidelines such as wearing face masks, wearing masks absenteeism in case of flu-like symptoms, and minimizing contact with patients.
Ethical/Legal Dilemma
There are different ethical considerations in implementing a mandatory flu vaccination. First, implementing mandatory vaccination must consider the employment needs of workers. For instance, there is a need to apply evidence-based assessment to know whether or not to implement the policy in the recruitment process or to qualify potential workers. Secondly, certain people’s side effects or drug reactions must be considered to minimize adverse outcomes. For example, some people’s immune system reacts spontaneously to certain vaccines or drugs, yielding more complications.
Suggestions for Future Studies
Future investigations should assess the response of healthcare workers to the mandatory vaccination against influenza. For instance, while some people may welcome the application of the policy to the employment process, others may object to the procedure. The response will affect the nature of policy implementation among healthcare workers. Also, the assessment will pave the way to apply more practical approaches to roll out the health policy through the relevant suggestions by healthcare workers.
Summary
The study focused on mandatory flu vaccination, as the New York State’s health department suggested. The health policy helps to reduce disease prevalence and improve overall health outcomes. The study thus incorporated a literature search of previous scholarly resources or materials. Also, the study evaluated the impact of health policy on healthcare workers and management. Healthcare workers and management thus have a significant role in implementing the policy to reduce influenza prevalence and minimize mortality and morbidity. Lastly, the paper assessed the ethical dilemma and suggested areas for future studies.
Reference
Edmond, M.B (2019). Mandatory Flu Vaccine for Healthcare Workers: Not Worthwhile. Open forum infectious diseases, 6(4), ofy214. https:/doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofy214
Gallagher, M.C., Haessler, S., & Babcock, H.M. (2020). Influenza Vaccination and Healthcare Personnel Compliance. Curr Team Options Infect Dis, 12, 71-76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40506-020-00211-y
Trish, M., & Thomas, R. (2019). Universal Influenza vaccination among healthcare personnel: yes, we should. Open forum infectious diseases, 6(4), ofz096
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