 The word "mandatory" is not my favorite word. I need to redeem it... Mandatory gratitude. Mandatory gift! Mandatory day off. Mandatory pay raise...promotion...reward! I don't really like being told that I have to do anything...so, along with my lean toward natural solutions whenever possible, the mandatory flu shot got an automatic push back from me. Not only am I not convinced this on this vaccine, it's the one time of year that I am gauranteed to experience symptoms of a cold / flu - right after I get the flu shot. Anyway! Since I am sitting here with a sore arm, feeling achy all over, a runny nose... I am thinking over this and wondering if just taking 3 months would have been worth it. Did you know that employee compliance with the influenza vaccination policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has reached 99.9 percent, up from 80 percent on Dec.1, 2014 .“On behalf of our patients, I’m very pleased to see this dramatic increase in our compliance rate,” said Gerald Hickson, M.D., senior vice-president for Quality, Safety and Risk Prevention and assistant vice chancellor for Health Affairs. ....turns out, just threaten their jobs, and they will show up. This is the email I received this week...On Dec. 1, any employee who has not received the flu shot will be put on mandatory unpaid leave until March 1. This is fascinating research. A study conducted by Vanderbilt researchers shows those who got flu shots had a 57% less chance of getting hospitalized with pneumonia caused by the flu. ...how much did we spend on this study? ... so, people who get the flu vaccine have just a little over 50/50 chance of getting pneumonia severe enough that they will be hospitalized WHEN THEY GET THE FLU! Researchers studied 2,700 patients over the course of three flu seasons who were admitted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Getting an influenza vaccine showed to be most-effective in adults under the age of 65 and children. The vaccine did not show as much success in preventing pneumonia among the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. ...wait, aren't those with compromised immune systems the reason my flu shot is mandatory?  Then there is the $1.6 billion business of flu.
GlaxoSmithKline switched this year to make only the quadrivalent vaccine, citing customer demand, and has a direct-to-consumer advertising campaign for it that said, "Choose More, Choose Four." With the protection against the extra strain comes the ability to charge more And about the fear that surrounds the choice not to vaccinate.... ”The number of deaths attributed to influenza over the years is always averaged at 36,000 per year in the United States, and that number is still often used. Yes, We are told that 36,000 Americans die from the seasonal flu. We are not to notice the words "attributed to". ...This, to me, is like those sites that say "free shopping" and we go to check out and wonder why we are charged for shipping...and then go ahead a pay it because we already made our purchase decision. Most of those deaths, when you look closer at the literature, resulted from bacterial pneumonia triggered by the Flu. And the age bracket for most victims is 65 and over. (Keep in mind the Vanderbilt study mentioned earlier). But the Flu itself is relatively innocuous by comparison, and actual flu death figures are statistically minor. The who base Flu death averages not on the Influenza totals but on the combined Pneumonia & Influenza totals are overcoming a serious political challenge: convincing the public of the urgency to be vaccinated when the crisis is no longer perceived to be real. Without that advantage of fear, given all that we have learned about the lack of efficacy & dangers inherent to the shots, the entire Flu Vaccine Industry might very well collapse.So when you hear the number of flu related deaths per year, remember that it’s a complete estimation. The WHO and the CDC take the numbers of not only those individuals with confirmed influenza cases, but also those individuals that have not been tested to see whether or not they had influenza but died from pneumonia. They’re taking a complete guess and assuming that about half of the individuals that died from pneumonia developed pneumonia because they contracted influenza as well, which may or may not be true. You’ll also see that, despite a consecutive increase of flu vaccinations each year, the number of influenza AND pneumonia cases remain about the same (vaxtruth.org). How do we get a 100% compliance rate, so that Vanderbilt can put that out to the public to make them feel safe and commuicate that if your health care leaders value the vaccine so much, you should too! ...it all comes back to this - if you don't have a real promise to make about your product, find a way to scare your consumers! enough... I'm going to get my kleenex and cardamom tea - see if I can beat this immune response to my forced flu shot and have a mandatory great day anyway! Mandatory self care day! Mandatory time with the people you love! Mandatory gratitude!
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I was sitting in an auditorium of 3000 women, soaking up all the business and life tips and the speaker on the stage said the words "Imposter syndrome". My first thought was, "is that a real thing? another made up term to justify not doing what you are supposed to be doing?" ...as I'm thinking that, she says - "those of you who have it are probably right now planning to do research to see if that is even a real thing"... uh oh. This cognitive mishap was mentioned a couple more times in the weekend. Then this morning, I mentioned it to a friend who is a counselor -and she confirms it! Honestly, while I was looking for her to denounce it, it actually made me feel better - at least someone I know, like and trust can give me some guidance here. I'm evidently in great company - pschologists think that this exists to some degree in most of us!  "The beauty of the impostor syndrome is you vacillate between extreme egomania and a complete feeling of: 'I'm a fraud! Oh God, they're on to me! I'm a fraud!' So you just try to ride the egomania when it comes and enjoy it, and then slide through the idea of fraud." – Tina Fey Now, I have done some research and would probably agree that it is more of a phenomenon than it is a syndrome. Syndrome is easier to say and spell. Regardless of what you call it, according to -at the risk of jeopardizing my credibility - wikipedia, Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome) is a term coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists Dr. Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes referring to high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a "fraud". Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be. Some studies suggest that impostor syndrome is particularly common among high-achieving women. (It's that part of the definition actually makes me feel a little better - and that I can own that too means that I'm not a hopeless case too, right!)
So, have you heard of it? Do you have it too? If you do - do you want to journey with me through the straightening out of misaligned thought patterns? We have things to do. We have gifts that God has given us to steward. What we don't have time for is for thinking that tells us that we don't make a difference, we may do more harm than good by getting involved, we don't have anything valuable to say, we can never be the one to champion that or be the expert on this... or that it's ok not to live all of what God has prepared in advanced for us! It is time to get out of my own way, gheesh! |
Juli ReynoldsWellness Advocate, BSN,RN Archives
August 2020
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