Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare will soon experience a nursing shortage crisis. Piedmont has announced mandatory Covid-19 mRNA injections for registered nurses and other essential staff.
In a statement this week, Piedmont announced it would require all 23,000 employees to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
No employee can refuse, “with few exceptions,” according to the statement.
In a statement, Piedmont Healthcare said it will require “Piedmont leaders, physicians, providers, and new employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, as of Sept. 1”.
The hospital announced the rest of the workers will be required to be fully vaccinated “in the near future.”
Several of Piedmont’s staff nurses threatened to resign in messages posted to a private Facebook group on Tuesday.
Hospitals can’t survive without good nurses. The quickest way to lose good staff nurses is by forcing them to take experimental drugs that are not fully approved by the FDA.
Emory Healthcare in Atlanta stopped short of mandating mRNA vaccines. Instead, it is encouraging, but not yet requiring, all employees to be vaccinated.
“Emory Healthcare is not requiring the COVID-19 vaccination for its employees while the vaccines are under Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA,” said a hospital spokesperson in an email to 11Alive on Tuesday. “We will continue to review ongoing safety and effectiveness data and reassess our decision upon full FDA approval.”
Back in the ’80s and ’90s hospitals tried mandating flu shots for all staff, but the facilities quickly backed down and offered waivers when nurses threatened to quit en masse.
