 With flu season well underway everyone is trying to take the necessary precautions to stop the spread of germs. However reports suggest that existing flu vaccines may be unable to cope with new strains emerging this year in Australia and China. Media coverage recently about a severe strain of flu in Australia. So there is an Australian strain included in the vaccine we're using here in Ireland this year. I'm not sure I suppose it remains to be seen whether that will confer any greater immunity or not. All healthcare workers should have the vaccine and it's not compulsory at the moment but I think maybe in the future it will become compulsory and I think in other countries it already is. For student nurses there is no compulsion to get the flu vaccine before they go on placement. It's kind of up to the discretion of the student to get it themselves off their own back and you're not obliged to get it it's just kind of if you want to get it or not. I'm not getting it just because I'm more conscious that if I do get it and if I do go sick I will have to repeat the placement so I'd rather just do my placement and learn and put myself at that risk it's at my own expense. An intensive flu vaccination campaign by the HSE has 100,000 vaccines in circulation already however if strains of the flu virus that are circulating in Australia emerge in Ireland it is likely that the vaccines will only be partially effective. Which could mean a heavier reliance on alternative remedies.