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. 2021 Nov-Dec;69(6):1081-1089.
doi: 10.1016/j.outlook.2021.07.011. Epub 2021 Aug 6.

Should nurses take a COVID-19 vaccine?

Alan J Kearns  1
Affiliations

Should nurses take a COVID-19 vaccine?

Alan J Kearns. Nurs Outlook. 2021 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

The issue as to whether health care professionals have a moral obligation to take a vaccine for a communicable disease is not new. Nonetheless, this issue takes on a fresh urgency within nursing practice in the context of the present COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., is there an ethical requirement for nurses to take a COVID-19 vaccine? This paper approaches the issue by using a hypothetical example of Nurse X who has inadvertently infected Patient Y. French's (1984a) Principle of Responsive Adjustment is adapted to claim that there would be a moral expectation that Nurse X takes a COVID-19 vaccine (unless there are justifiable reasons not to). The proposition is also made that, should Nurse X not take a COVID-19 vaccine, they could be morally associated with originally infecting Patient Y.

Keywords: COVID-19; Principle of Responsive Adjustment; Vaccines.

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