Nurses warned to get swine flu vaccine

NURSES have been warned they have a professional responsibility to their patients to avail of the swine flu jab as soon as the vaccine becomes available.

The chief nursing officer of the Department of Health and the HSE director of nursing wrote this week to all nursing staff advising them of their duty of care to their patients and themselves to protect against infection.

The letter had the backing of the main nursing union, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and An Bord Altranais, the nursing regulatory body. Its dispatch coincided with the findings of a British survey, published last week, which found a third of frontline nurses do not want the jab.