any cnas ever catch anything from their residents/patients

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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I'm a CNA student and we're actually going over infection infect control and the instructor was telling us how hand washing breaks the chain of infection. Great, but she was saying how easily things spread for ex she said how in this resident had conjunctivitis and next thing you know the whole unit did and that this resulted from worker bad hand hygiene. Not saying YOU were careless but has anyone caught something a resident had. Esp something more serious like mrsa or something.

Only thing that worries me is bringing some I feel infection home to my baby. Of course doing something wrong and hurting a resident would be another worry.

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I see it happen every time we have an outbreak of something infectious. Normally this is something like a respiratory or digestive bug, though.

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I have not yet but I've only done clinicals (haven't landed a job yet) but what I did as a precautionary measure, when I could, is I'd go into my house through the garage, strip down and leave my dirty scrubs and shoes in there. Then hop right in the shower before my little boy realized I was home.

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I'm still a student so haven't had much opportunity to catch much, however, I taught preschool for several years and even with lots of hand-washing, everyone (students and teacher alike) seemed to catch every virus until we'd built up our immunities. I imagine it will be the same in this line of work which is probably one reason so many immunizations are required when we enter the field.

I have read on here that several nurses do like stewartfamily2010, they change and shower as soon as they get home and some even go as far as to wash their scrubs separately from the family's laundry. I don't know if this really provides a benefit since the clothes still go in the same machine....germs can survive in the machine. I personally wash everything on cold but dry with heat so I hope to kill most of it in the dryer.

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Yep. Spent the entire month of January and half the month of February sick with five different things because I picked them up from work. I am the hygiene queen at work and I still got sick.

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We suspect that I did. I was out of school for 1 week and I was actually working as a unit clerk when I managed to get this nasty headache that turned out to be related to a sinus infection. Then I felt fine but lost my voice and developed a cough. It was hard trying to triage patients with a mask on and yelling over them. I had to go get antibiotics from my NP.

I think the worst thing I have ever caught from the hospital was probably food poisoning. No fever, no pain, felt fine till approx 30 minutes before I'd vomit. I also threw up about 8 times in 6 hours. Another nurse had the same thing so we think we caught something from the late night cafeteria food.

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I've never gotten anything like MRSA or c. diff from the hospital or nursing home, but then again I am always working. It's hard to tell where you got it from, especially during cold/flu season.

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Specializes in Acute Rehab, IMCU, ED, med-surg.

2 years as a CNA now; have spent most of my time in an ICU with contact rooms (MRSA, c-diff etc etc) aplenty...nothing yet! Wash, wash, wash the hands!!

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiology..

Okay. I haven't gotten anything from a pt or resident yet. I love washing my hands and carrying hand sanitizer. My boyfriend is always giving me a bad time saying that your body needs the germs. Input?

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I've caught a nasty stomach bug or two. I once thought I caught C-Diff, but it was (thankfully!) a false alarm. After that, I became even more conscious of sanitation than I already was.

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I've worked with many infectious stuff and only thing I ever brought home was a cold. I've been a CNA for 10 years.

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Specializes in Transitional Nursing.

I"ve caught colds and things like that. Had a co-worker catch scabie. *shudder*

You just have to be careful, always wash your hands or use sanitizer. I carry a little bottle in my pocket as well as use the ones provided and I actually wash my hands before and after actual patient care even though we're allowed to only use the sanitizer unless our hands are visibly soiled.

Also what others have said, I go directly to the washer, put my clothes in and jump in the shower. This involves walking through the house naked but my husband doesn't mind ;-)

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do

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