Ab In mid-March, vaccinations are compulsory for professions in the medical field. The law was passed two months ago by the Bundestag and Bundesrat to protect sick, old and disabled people from being infected with Covid-19. This week, the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU chairman Markus Söder and the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz sharply attacked the law. It is no longer “effective” against the Omicron variant, but could be an instrument to worsen the care situation, said Söder. There are “insurmountable difficulties” for healthcare and geriatric care facilities, said Merz. And: “We see a massive loss of staff there.”
What’s wrong with these arguments? What do we know about nurse vaccination rates? And what do those who are affected say?
A survey by the Robert Koch Institute, in which around 16,000 employees from 104 hospitals took part, showed that 92 percent of clinic employees had already been vaccinated against Covid-19 by mid-November. With the doctors it was even 98 percent, similar to the doctors in private practice. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians therefore “does not assume that there will be a wave of staff shortages”. According to the Association of Medical Professions, medical assistants are also vaccinated more often than average.
One to two percent
But what is the situation in nursing? After all, the Federal Employment Agency reported that more than twice as many nurses registered as unemployed in December and January than in the same period two years ago. The figures do not show whether this is related to the facility-related compulsory vaccination. One thing is clear: most employees in the care sector are vaccinated. According to the RKI, it was 94 percent in the hospitals. The vaccination rate fluctuated depending on the area of application: on the so-called normal wards, more nurses had refused the injection, in risk areas such as the emergency room or the operating rooms it was only three percent. A lightning survey by the German Hospital Institute (DKI) at the end of January showed that the vaccination rate in nursing was now 95 percent. However, one to two percent of nursing staff still seem to refuse the vaccination.
The nursing scientist Christel Bienstein, President of the German Professional Association for Nursing Professions, also assumes such magnitudes. Although she does not believe that there will be a wave of layoffs. “But there will be cuts.” Bienstein is hopeful about the now available vaccine Nuvaxovid from Novavax, which resembles an inactivated vaccine and may convince those who distrust mRNA vaccines such as those from Biontech or Moderna.
But even if most nursing staff have been vaccinated, there is certainly cause for concern: according to the DKI survey, two thirds of the approximately 250 clinics surveyed expect that patient care will suffer because of the vaccination requirement – for example because beds are blocked due to a lack of staff, Operations postponed, ambulances diverted to other clinics. Simply because there are so few nursing staff overall. None can be spared. Even before the pandemic, a nurse in Germany was responsible for an average of 13 patients, in the Netherlands it was just under 7 and in the USA only 5.4. The care of the sick suffers as a result, and that damages work ethic, says Bienstein: “Colleagues have been experiencing for years that they can no longer give patients or people in need of care what they need.” In short: anyone who quits now is not just since Vaccination decision dissatisfied.