Ebola Nursing Survey: to Quarantine or Not to Quarantine

[tnbutterfly - Mary]

Survey Update......Survey is now closed. Please go to Survey Results to see the response from the allnurses community.

Once again, it is a nurse who has taken the Ebola media spotlight this week. Kaci Hickox, a nurse who cared for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone found herself quarantined against her will in New Jersey upon her return to the US, in spite of the fact that she tested negative for the virus. After a 3 day isolation in less than desirable accommodations, she was transported home where she was supposed to remain under home quarantine but is now declaring that the quarantine is unnecessary and counterproductive, and is openly defying the order by going out in public.

Additional breaches in voluntary quarantine from those returning from Ebola-plagued Africa occurred when NBC medical correspondent, Dr. Nancy Snyderman in New Jersey and Dr. Craig Spencer in New York left their homes and ventured out into public spaces.

On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for voluntary home quarantine for workers with the highest risk for Ebola infection. It also specified that most medical personnel returning from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea would not need to be kept in isolation.

In spite of this, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, mandated a 21-day mandatory quarantine policy for all healthcare workers exposed to Ebola. Although this move has received much criticism, it did get the support of Dr. Bruce Beutler, an American doctor and researcher and Nobel Prize winner for Medicine and Physiology for his work researching the the body’s overall immune system. He is currently the Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Center in Dallas. He favors Christie’s quarantine policy “because it’s not entirely clear that they can’t transmit the disease,” referring to asymptomatic healthcare workers like Kaci Hickox.

New York and Illinois have also have followed suit and mandated mandatory 21-day home quarantine policies. Although there is plenty of scientific evidence indicating there’s very little chance that a random person will contract Ebola unless they touch bodily fluids of an infected person, the thought is that the authorities need to do something to calm Americans’ fears. As Mike Osterholm, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, says, "You want to try to eliminate not just real risk, but perceived risk."

There are thoughts on both sides of this issue which has led to heated discussions at times. There are concerns about the potential impact with both pathways of re-entry requirements for Ebola healthcare workers. What are your thoughts about this? Please take our survey to share your opinions. Let your voice be heard.

[kerrhi]

She was detained against her will. The living conditions of that detainment are irrelevant to the point that she was unnecessarily detained against her will.

Absolutely. She can come live with me and my family. I would have no concerns provided she remained afebrile.

Remember you are speaking about a person. A young woman, a nurse, who put her own life on hold, put her health at risk, and traveled to "ground zero" to use her expertise and training to help people in desperate need, and to help eradicate this virus and protect even us back here in the 1st world. You should respect and admire her not speak about her or treat her like a prisoner. Perhaps ask yourself what you have done for society?

As a career EMT, volunteer and an RN, I know exactly what I have done for society. As someone who has had someone hug them in the middle of CVS for literally saving their life, I know EXACTLY what I have done for society! As someone who is responsible for teaching hundreds of people the life saving skills of CPR, I know EXACTLY what I have done for society.

How dare you even question that!

And I have zero respect for someone so self-centered that she is willing to put a population at risk for her own agenda. (Think $$$) She is using this as a get-rich-quick scheme and people like you are falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

[FlyingScot, RN]

And I have zero respect for someone so self-centered that she is willing to put a population at risk for her own agenda. (Think $$$) She is using this as a get-rich-quick scheme and people like you are falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

Please explain how she is putting a population at risk. She is not infectious. She does not have Ebola. She is monitoring her temperature and last I heard she hasn't gone to any public places (unless the woods in her remote area count).

[toomuchbaloney]

Yes this nurse could come and stay with me and mine at this time because she cannot make me or mine sick when she is not sick. When/if she becomes symptomatic then she gets isolated and treated. I would not be worried about it, the science is pretty clear on this matter.

Texas already conducted an experiment for the fearful folks but the fearful seem to be too frightened to realize it. TX required that members of Duncan's family remain in his small apartment with his heavily soiled linens after he became acutely ill, none of them were infected.

[Emergent, RN]

What are we going to do if this virus becomes more established in this country? We do need to examine and debate our policies about this. HIV became politicized because so many were in a sexual minority. Healthcare workers only have the ability to recommend for the pt to notify partners. How many innocent wives, partners, children, have been affected by those policies? And HIV is hard to get! But unwitting spouses can easily be victimized by a cheating partner. And condoms are not 100% protection!

I'm in favor of some sensible quarantine, but she should be able to take a bike ride. No one is endangered by that. And, if the government plans on imposing something like this, they'd better be replacing lost income, be shopping for the person, etc.

As far as demonizing the nurse in question, I wish people would stop. She's a citizen of the United States who has a right to disagree with you all, she probably knows a lot more about this disease than 99% of people. The politicians imposing the quarantines are most likely the usual yellow-bellied scoundrels who frequent that occupation.

[OCNRN63, RN]

You don't think 21 days of quarantine for no legitimate reason is too much to ask or anyone? Let alone someone who traveled across the globe to help cure this illness and save thousands of lives to return home and be treated like a prisoner by those people that don't understand the disease and are preaching "better safe than sorry" because they lack the courage to face a minute fraction of a risk at home that she risked going to help.

This in turn restricts more people from going to help which increases the risk of spread as well as at the cost of many lives. If we ever have a true Ebola pandemic here in this country it's because we didn't send enough people there to cure it.

Worry more about your flu shots. I will call out anyone I see here that is posting about Ebola and also posts about choosing not to vaccinate.

Sent from my iPhone.

Consider me your partner in this venture. I had planned to do the same thing.

[FlyingScot, RN]

I'm in favor of some sensible quarantine, but she should be able to take a bike ride. No one is endangered by that.

Unless, of course, she actually IS licking trees!

[toomuchbaloney]

Unless, of course, she actually IS licking trees!

She could be spitting on people as she rides by on her bike and she is STILL not going to give them ebola unless she is symptomatic. She is not symptomatic.

[Tina, RN]

What happens if she goes to a crowded movie theater, feeling great, on day 19. A lot can happen in 2 hours. What if she leaves that theater with a high fever, feeling like crap? What if she feels so bad that she vomits in the lobby on the way out? This is not an impossible scenario, is it?

I understand the science. If there are no symptoms, the person is not contagious. And Ebola might not be as easy to catch as people think. However, you just don't know when, or if, those symptoms will arrive. To me, being extra cautious for 21 days isn't such a big deal, in the scope of things.

[FlyingScot, RN]

She could be spitting on people as she rides by on her bike and she is STILL not going to give them ebola unless she is symptomatic. She is not symptomatic.

I hope you know that I was taking a jab at the people who think she should be shut up in her house, have her license removed and possibly be burned at the stake.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Well, now a judge has ruled that she doesn't need to quarantine. Do you still think she needs to stay shut up in her house now?

[FlyingScot, RN]

What happens if she goes to a crowded movie theater, feeling great, on day 19. A lot can happen in 2 hours. What if she leaves that theater with a high fever, feeling like crap? What if she feels so bad that she vomits in the lobby on the way out? This is not an impossible scenario, is it?

Yes it is because that is not how the disease progresses.

[toomuchbaloney]

I hope you know that I was taking a jab at the people who think she should be shut up in her house, have her license removed and possibly be burned at the stake.

I do and did. However there seems to be an element of fearful and ignorant people in these threads who are grasping at any phrases which they hope will support their irrational fear. They are often not reading carefully or using critical thinking as they engage information.