Keywords
Prevention of infection
Abstract
Background: In Utah, all major hospital facilities have employee vaccination policies. However, the presence of health care worker vaccination policies in the Utah outpatient oncology setting was unknown.
Objectives: The objectives were to identify Utah oncology outpatient employee vaccination policies and to identify what consequences, if any, were present for unvaccinated employees.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study design in which clinic managers from outpatient oncology clinics in Utah were asked, via questionnaire, to describe the clinic’s employee vaccination policy and the consequences for refusing the policy.
Findings: Most vaccination policies applied to employees primarily assigned to work in the back office area. Most commonly, influenza and Hepatitis B vaccines were required as part of the vaccination policy. Most managers offered free vaccinations to employees, although most managers also allowed employees to refuse to follow the vaccination policy for medical, religious, or personal reasons.
Implications for practice:
- Oncology nurses can and should shape clinic vaccination policies that positively influence health and safety of oncology patients.
- Oncology nurses should strongly endorse the CDC’s health care worker vaccine recommendations and collaborate with clinic policymakers to enact and enforce strict vaccination policies.
- Oncology nurses should oppose policies allowing health care workers to refuse vaccines for personal reasons.
- Oncology nurses can easily adapt established vaccination policies in local hospitals to the outpatient oncology setting.
Original Publication Citation
Luthy, K. E., Stocksdale, S. L., Macintosh, J. L., Eden, L. M., Beckstrand, R. L., & Edmonds, K. (2016). Evaluation of Employee Vaccination Policies in Outpatient Oncology Clinics: A Pilot Study. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 20(5), 492. doi:10.1188/16.CJON.492-497
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Luthy, Karlen Beth; Stocksdale, Sarah L.; Macintosh, Janelle L B; Eden, Lacey M.; Beckstrand, Renea L.; and Edmonds, Katherine, "Evaluation of Vaccination Policies Among Outpatient Oncology Clinics in Utah: A Pilot Study" (2015). Faculty Publications. 1754.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/1754
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2015-12-11
Permanent URL
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/3703
Publisher
Oncology Nursing Society (ONS)
Language
English
College
Nursing
Copyright Status
© 2015 Oncology Nursing Society. All rights reserved. This is the author's submitted version of this article. The definitive version can be found at https://cjon.ons.org/cjon/20/5/evaluation-employee-vaccination-policies-outpatient-oncology-clinics-pilot-study
Copyright Use Information
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/