Final Submission

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Argument Research Essay First Draft

Javier Hernandez Tamayo

Chamberlain University

English 147

Professor Szpara

February 5, 2022

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Nurses and other Healthcare Professionals are not treated fairly due to Mandatory

COVID-19 Vaccination.

Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in 2019 Dec in Wuhan, China, the world

has been taken by storm by the pandemic. Massive theories have emerged about the virus since

this is the first time it is being addressed. Healthcare professionals have been on the front line to

offer assistance to affected victims and the challenge is that even medical professionals have

been a vulnerable population with extremely high levels of exposure and contraction. As a way

of saving people, pharmaceutical companies have been working round the clock to come up with

vaccines that would help the body to develop right antibodies to fight the virus. With different

pharmaceutical companies inventing a vaccine, the United States government have taken the

issue an notch higher by making it a law that all nurses and healthcare providers must get

vaccinated and failure to do they opt for voluntary termination. From the situation, many has

been forced to get vaccinated against their will to secure their careers while others have been

terminated leading to loss of livelihood. The situation does not sound fair because in a free and

democratic country, people and in this case nurses have a right to make decision on whether to

get vaccinated or not. The way nurses are being treated on the basis of mandatory vaccination is

not fair and other effective and professional methods to handle the situation should be created

and reinforced to create a balanced environment for the nurses, patients, and general members of

the public.

According to Maltezou, et al., (2019); since the vaccine was introduced and with the

number of people vaccinated, COVID 19 Vaccine does not seem to be the solution for the

pandemic as promised. There are a lot of people who have developed other complications after

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being injected a new chemical in their body systems and the side effects have been the cause of

their death. From the fact that the vaccine has not proven to be the overall pandemic solution, it

is not ethical and professional to compel nurses simply because of their career to go through

mandatory vaccination of go through voluntary termination from their career. Nurses are placed

in a better position to understand the content of the vaccine, its effect on the body, and ability to

protect the body from contracting the virus (Kostoff, et al., 2020). It is from this understanding

that nurses should be granted a fair ground to make personal and informed decisions on whether

to get vaccinated or not without their livelihood being threatened.

The decision to have nurses undergo voluntary termination in the case they are against

mandatory vaccination is a direct method of promoting staff shortage in the industry. This comes

as a time when the country is in dire need of medical professionals from the increasing number

of affected patients visiting various medical facilities for attention (Williams, et al., 2020). Being

a time when nurses are needed by the government the most, it is not right to have them go

through termination since there are many other options available that can be used to keep nurses

safe from contracting or spreading the virus for instance wearing of protective gears (Manning,

et al., 2021). There are a lot of many other options the government can explore and make sure

that nurses due to high level of exposure are granted many other options and they have to

embrace some since they are only physically protective and would not have any form of side

effects on their bodies.

According to Maltezou, et al., (2019); mandatory COVID 19 vaccination represents an

ethical problem because it does not take in consideration other determinant factors such as

population health, socio-cultural factors, religious beliefs, population immunity status as well as

individual rights and willingness to accept the vaccine. These are important factors that any

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government should consider before making it mandatory for a certain group of people to engage

in an activity (Williams, et al., 2020). The failure to consider such factors appears like the order

is dictatorial in nature and has some hidden agenda that the government is trying to push. For

long, the government has been vocal on embracing diversity and this means cultures, religious

beliefs, and personal opinions must be considered in order to attain a democratic environment

(Manning, et al., 2021). Making it mandatory for nurses to go through mandatory vaccination

means that their individual rights as citizens is being snatched away from them. The more reason

is that there are nurses from religious beliefs that do not belief in vaccines, others are hindered by

their cultures, and others by personal beliefs and values which should be respected under the law.

Nevertheless, despite the situation being unfair for the nurses and medical professionals

directly affected by the ruling, it is important to understand that COVID 19 vaccination has

ability to reduce the risk of severe forms of SARS-COVID 19 (Parker, et al., 2021). For the

many that have been vaccinated against corona virus, a majority of them have been able to

overcome other variants of the virus that even have a higher impact on the body than the initial

virus. Moreover, as vaccination is becoming the order of the day, the number of infected cases is

reducing tremendously proving that the vaccine may not be the overall solution to the pandemic

but have a noticeable percentage of effectiveness that is perfectly working for some people

(Parker, et al., 2021). This is a perspective that nurses should use to consider their options and

make informed decisions but still does not guarantee the use of force and threat to have nurses

undergo vaccination.

Looking at the scenario when the pandemic was at its highest, the country was exposed to

lockdowns and later curfews that had an economic turndown. Other strict measures were also

introduced by the ministry of health for instance constant washing of hands, wearing of surgical

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masks to cover mouth and nose while communicating with another person, and maintaining

social distance (Maltezou, et al., 2019). All these measures were made mandatory with intentions

of saving lives something that has proven fruitful. The more reason is that with the application of

these measures, the spread rate has gone low leading to opening of economy and more people

contributing towards improving the already suffering economy. Despite the measure appearing

harsh, the overall intention of the government could be ensuring that nurses since they are

incharge of saving lives are safe so that they can assist many people to get back on their feet

bringing the country back to normalcy (Parker, et al., 2021). Despite the fact that the motive

could be noble, there should be professional communication and nurses convinced on why they

should support the vaccination so as not to make it sound mandatory and at the same time have

them vaccinated as they retain their employment opportunities.

Nurses should also consider that their job is highly sensitive and its overall purpose is

boost levels of public health. According to Centers for Disease Control, (2022) nurses are trained

to encourage and enlighten members of the public on the importance of engaging in activities

that would maintain quality health and safety (Williams, et al., 2020). One of the things that

nurses have done professionally is conducting immunizations on children more so on many other

diseases that have affected the world through pandemics in the past. For instance, nurses are

vocal to mothers to make sure that their children go through all recommended immunization

doses to keep them safe from contracting diseases with irreversible effects (CDC, 2022). Having

this being their job, it means that whenever a pandemic rises, they should be the first to go

through vaccination to send the right signals that indeed vaccines save lives. The fact that they

must be threatened to comply sends a fear message to other people with no medical knowledge

on why those people with solid medical understanding are against the vaccines. Moreover,

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nurses should use their connection and knowledge to investigate more about the vaccine and

share completely valid and practical reasons why people should or should not get vaccinated.

In conclusion, nurses are human beings with human rights they should enjoy like any

other citizen. The COVID-19 pandemic had a sound effect on the country and people on

individual levels. The implementation of an order by the ministry of health that nurses must

undergo mandatory vaccination of face voluntary termination has supporting and opposing

arguments. However, for the purpose of striking a balance, it is not right and legally acceptable

to compel one to undergo a vaccination that he/she has no knowledge about and has been proven

to have extremely bad side effects. Secondly, the order comes at a time when the country is in

dire need of qualified and competent nurses to take care of COVID-19 patients thereby saving

lives. Nevertheless, nurses and the medical professionals are in a position to do a thorough

investigation about the vaccine and use their knowledge based on facts and not assumptions to

make a solid decision on whether or not to get vaccinated. The results should also be openly

communicated while making sure they do not put their lives and those of patients in greater risks

given the sensitivity of their jobs. As Manning, et al., (2021) states, the government instead of

issuing threats should prepare nurses so that they can naturally embrace the idea and offer their

support thereby eliminating the contrast.

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References

Centers for Disease Control, (January 12, 2022). Key Things to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines

.https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html?s_cid=1049

3:cdc%20covid%20vaccine:sem.ga:p:RG:GM:gen:PTN:FY21

Kostoff, R., Briggs, M., Porter, A., Spandidos, D., Tsatsakis, (2020). A., COVID 19 Vaccine

Safety. International journal of molecular medicine, 2020-11-01, Vol.46 (5), p.1599-

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Maltezou, H. C., Theodoridou, K., Ledda, C., Rapisarda, V., & Theodoridou, M. (2019).

Vaccination of healthcare workers: is mandatory vaccination needed?. Expert review of

vaccines, 18(1), 5-13.

Manning, M. L., Gerolamo, A. M., Marino, M. A., Hanson-Zalot, M. E., & Pogorzelska-

Maziarz, M. (2021). COVID-19 vaccination readiness among nurse faculty and student

nurses. Nursing Outlook, 69(4), 565-573.

Parker, M., Bedford, H., Ussher, M., & Stead, M. (2021). Should covid vaccination be

mandatory for health and care staff?. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 374,

n1903. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1903

Williams, L., Gallant, A., Rasmussen, S., Brown Nicholls, L., Cogan, N., Deakin, K., Young, D.

Flowers, P., (2020). Towards intervention development to increase the uptake of

COVID‐19 vaccination among those at high risk: Outlining evidence‐based and

theoretically informed future intervention content. British Journal of Health Psychology.

Nov2020, Vol. 25 Issue 4, p1039-1054. 16p. 3 Charts.