There is an escalating fight between Houston Methodist Hospital and wary health care workers who say they don't want to have to choose between their jobs and a vaccine that isn't fully FDA approved.
The policy has worked. About 98% of the 26,000 employees at Houston Methodist have now been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to Stefanie Asin, director of public relations and communications at Houston Methodist.
The issue is especially fraught in health care, where surprisingly large pockets of hesitancy exist, and hospitals have found themselves in the unenviable position of trying to find a way to support wary and burnt-out workers while protecting vulnerable patients. First, the hospital offered $500 bonuses for employees who got vaccinated; then, in March, they told staffers that anyone who didn't get vaccinated could lose their jobs if they weren't approved for an exemption.
"But I'll be honest, since I've kind of fell into this little rabbit hole and got all into this, the more research and personal experiences I come across and things I've seen with my own eyes, like, this vaccine actually scares me now," Bridges says."I will never take it. If I have to get out of the medical field to save myself, I will."
"That one's been around for so many years and so much research, that, like, I was OK with that one," she says. "We don’t agree with being forced to take a mandatory vaccine, or we get fired from our job," said Jennifer Bridges, a registered nurse.Bridges said statements made at the meeting really rubbed her the wrong way."If anybody knows anything about a nurse, our autonomy is super important. We're the ones with the patient. All day, we do the critical thinking. We save their lives. We take care of them. I mean the doctor shows up for 10 minutes and they're gone.
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