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End Of Shift: New H1n1 Flu Outbreak Stirs Memories For Nurse
Swine flu. When I heard those words over news radio recently, I was stunned. I couldn’t believe I was hearing that term again — and about a current outbreak!
When I first heard of H1N1 (swine) flu, it was 1976 and I was a student nurse in a baccalaureate program in Minnesota.We were asked to volunteer with the American Red Cross to help administer H1N1 flu vaccinations. I volunteered, having no idea I was setting out on the course my nursing career would take for two decades.
The 1976 H1N1 flu outbreak was first identified when soldiers fell ill at Fort Dix (N.J.); one of those soldiers died. (Eventually we would learn there were no reports the virus spread beyond the base.) President Gerald Ford, on the advice of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ordered a mass vaccination program, which led to the inoculation of more than 43 million people, about 25% of the U.S. population. I volunteered day after day, after classes and clinical rotations, helping administer H1N1 flu vaccinations in my community.
Unfortunately, serious side effects of the inoculation soon began to present themselves, including about 500 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, with 25 related deaths.
As a student nurse, I wondered if I did the right thing. I considered the call to assist during this public health emergency to be as serious as if I had been called to serve in the military. When the vaccine caused more harm than the flu, though, I wondered if I had made the right choice.
Eventually the director of the CDC resigned because of the repercussions of the vaccine. But what might have happened if we hadn’t inoculated so many people? Would the flu have spread? We’ll never really know, but that experience became pivotal not only in my nursing career, but in my decisionmaking habits.
When my volunteer work was over, I was given two tiny pewter pigs in thanks for the service I provided. For many years, I kept those pigs close at hand to remind me of a core belief — that you must make the best decision you can in any given moment to reach whatever your goal is. You use the knowledge and skills you have at the time, supported by the best science and advice available. A decision made at a different time — even minutes earlier or later — might be different. But at a specific moment in time, you make the best possible choice.
After I graduated from college, I volunteered again for the American Red Cross and continued with a pattern of volunteering that led to a paid position, and eventually a 20-year career that took me to numerous countries, where I met outstanding nurse leaders from all over the world. In the 1990s, I was named chief nurse of the American National Red Cross, and, working with strong volunteer nurse leaders, established the American Red Cross National Nursing Committee, the foundation for the role of state nurse liaisons, the Jane Delano Society, and so much more.
Now we have today’s H1N1 virus — an entirely new strain that has proven to be more prolific than the 1976 outbreak. We have seen a cautious, measured approach to this outbreak, perhaps because of lessons learned in the past. The public health decisions being made today reflect new information and 33 years of knowledge gleaned from experiences. We are making the best possible choices given the information at hand.
Cynthia Vlasich, RN, is director of the International Leadership Institute and educational resources at Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She previously served as vice president of professional services at Gannett Healthcare Group.
To comment, e-mail editorNTL@gannetthg.com.