Survey Results: To Quarantine or not to Quarantine

We surveyed our nursing community to see what you thought about the issues over the Kaci Hickox situation as well as its impact on nurses and healthcare workers. We also asked about your thoughts on quarantining all healthcare workers who have cared for Ebola patients. These issues have certainly generated lots of discussion within our allnurses community. We've read what some of you have said in the public threads......now you can see what more than 3,800 said in private. Nurses Announcements Archive

Published

To Quarantine or Not to Quarantine......That is the Question that we posed last Thursday. We just want to thank the 3800+ of you nurses who took the time to participate in the latest survey. Your voices have been heard and here is what you said about Kaci Hickox and other healthcare workers who have cared for Ebola patients.

Many posters felt that nurses who took care of Ebola patients should voluntarily quarantine themselves and not run the risk of infecting others....we should err on the side of caution. Some thought quarantine should be mandatory. Many comments were made that we don't know enough about Ebola, and that is causing a lot of discomfort. Some felt that quarantine was not necessary since she is asymptomatic, and some interesting comments pointed to hysteria and reactionism to the possible need for quarantine. Other comments included that the nurses should get paid for this time and several others weren't quite sure of the need for quarantine or not and wanted more information. Some felt "this nurse should be setting a good example for others."

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There were 581 comments on this question

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The second question garnered 441 comments.

Many comments were made to the effect that this nurse needed to more closely monitor her interactions with the media. Nurses usually have no public relations experience and for this nurse it was the cause of much negative publicity. "Kaci has turned this into a media frenzy." While many agree with her position, they feel she has handled this poorly.

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Summary of comments

There were over 2300 comments:

Most responders said that until we know more we should quarantine with pay. Many felt that education and following CDC guidelines was the way to deal with healthcare workers exposed to Ebola. Another commonality was to provide more information to the public so that hysteria and panic was averted. Many posters felt that self-quarantine was the way to go and others felt that these healthcare workers should be monitored in a CDC facility.

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Specializes in LTC.

I expected these results based on the threads here on AN but I am still saddened and disappointed. So much for science/EBP, fear/hysteria win.

I took it on my iPad and just viewed the results from the same...I make it a point to not touch my phone on my days off (ringing or not).

Hmmm. Don't know why I'm not seeing the polls then. I'll have to check into it.

Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.
I expected these results based on the threads here on AN but I am still saddened and disappointed. So much for science/EBP, fear/hysteria win.
This is not surprising to me. Science and EBP always takes a back seat to patient satisfaction...at least at my job. However, I will admit that I am one of those who said to quarantine until there is an 'official final word' on our approach/treatment to this virus. I was very disappointed when we were initially told that our flimsy plastic gowns and our gloves (that often rip when just during the donning process) were sufficient enough protection, only to be told a short time later that it's not. We are still in the early stages of the disease and if it was me that was being quarantined, I would have no problem at all. But I would have a major problem with the quarantine conditions.

We lead by example. I would expect my family and co-workers to bed down for the winter, if need be, in the interest of protecting the well-being of our friends, neighbors, and other family members. I mean, what if I'm feeling fine in the morning and I spike a temp during dinner at Applebee's within that incubation period?

Some folks mentioned quarantine with pay. I never even considered any type of monetary aspect to something so serious. But this just goes to show that there are many ways to look at a single event. My main thought was to look at it like this. I may have been very diligent in my care of a certain patient. But we all know that there are colleagues who are very lax on the job. Those same colleagues may have had simple single exposure to body fluids, come out into general population, used poor or no handwashing after toileting, handled equipment, computers, etc. So, we may or may not become infected by indirect contact....we never know. But these are my reasons for voting to quarantine....not just nurses returning from abroad, but those locally if it is determined that a healthcare worker may have relaxed his or her attention to detail due to being overly rushed or confident. After all, the dumping game is alive and well when it comes to staffing and assignments.

Specializes in Emergency Department.
I expected these results based on the threads here on AN but I am still saddened and disappointed. So much for science/EBP, fear/hysteria win.

Oh dear...... it is the same fear and hysteria as appeared with HIV/AID's in the 1980's. Do we not learn anything? :banghead:

Oh dear...... it is the same fear and hysteria as appeared with HIV/AID's in the 1980's. Do we not learn anything? :banghead:

Alas, that was thirty years ago, and no, most of the current crop of nurses weren't around to learn anything from it.

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/what-worst-hardship-886581.html (post #1)

Specializes in Family Practice, Mental Health.
I am really surprised and disappointed by the nursing response to this. It shows a poor understanding of the scientific process as well as the logistics required to effectively treat this disease.

Sent from my iPhone.

I am also dismayed at the results.

Excellent news!

Specializes in hospice.

I would be interested to see the results broken out by level of education. I know this is impossible because it wasn't built into the poll. Still, I think the results would be interesting.

Specializes in RN, CHPN.
Excellent news!

Interesting results from an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll of the public regarding quarantines for health workers:

More than seven in 10 Americans support mandatory quarantines for health professionals who have treated Ebola patients in West Africa, even if they have no symptoms, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

It's quite interesting to compare it to the same poll taken here at AllNurses:

8 in 10 support quarantines for those who have treated patients in Africa.

In the WSJ poll,

"those with lower levels of education are more likely to support quarantines (80 percent of those with a high school education or less are in favor) than those with college or post-graduate educations (63 percent are in favor.)

Of course the outcome of a poll is influenced by many factors, including polling technology, how the question is worded, the perception of who is asking the question, when and how the polling sample is drawn, and who agrees to take the poll and who decides not to.

But even so, these results are fascinating but not surprising:

The poll results here mirror the results in the WSJ poll for the general public with a high school education.

NBC/WSJ Poll: 71% Back Mandatory Quarantines for Ebola Health Workers - NBC News

Interesting results from an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll of the public regarding quarantines for health workers:

More than seven in 10 Americans support mandatory quarantines for health professionals who have treated Ebola patients in West Africa, even if they have no symptoms, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

It's quite interesting to compare it to the same poll taken here at AllNurses:

8 in 10 support quarantines for those who have treated patients in Africa, same as the WSJ poll.

In the WSJ poll,

"those with lower levels of education are more likely to support quarantines (80 percent of those with a high school education or less are in favor) than those with college or post-graduate educations (63 percent are in favor.)

Of course the outcome of a poll is influenced by many factors, including polling technology, how the question is worded, the perception of who is asking the question, when and how the polling sample is drawn, and who agrees to take the poll and who decides not to.

But even so, these results are fascinating but not surprising:

The poll results here mirror the results in the WSJ poll for the general public with a high school education.

NBC/WSJ Poll: 71% Back Mandatory Quarantines for Ebola Health Workers - NBC News

I'm sorry you have to resort to trying to undermine people because you are disappointed in the results.

Excellent news!

I disagree.

The fact that nursing schools seem to graduate nurses who completely lack the ability to critically read and interpret research is hardly cause for celebration. In fact, the implications are downright scary.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

One of the question in this survey was: Would a state quarantine protocol for healthcare workers deter you from treating Ebola patients?

20.69% answered yes, 66.87% answered no and the remaining 12.44% don't know.

Well, that doesn't sound too bad... Right? Only approximately one out of five would hesitate to care for an Ebola patient.

Well...

As we've all seen, many posters have previously expressed the opinion that they won't care for Ebola patients. This was before quarantines were ever mentioned. Logically, if those people answered this survey, they will have checked "no" when answering this question. They weren't going to provide care for an Ebola patient earlier, and the quarantine issue doesn't affect that.

The only people who could answer "yes" to this survey question are the people who were previously prepared to care for Ebola patients. If that was for example 40% of the respondents, it means that 50% of those who were actually willing to provide care, would hesitate if quarantines were implemented.

(In my opinion the survey should have asked if the nurse/respondent is willing to care for an Ebola patient in the first place, and then ask a follow-up question to see if a quarantine would change that).

The survey question was I assume primarily answered by nurses (if the respondent was indeed a nurse) who works in their home country only. However organizations like for example MSF, have signaled that quarantines might negatively affect their ability to send healthcare professionals to West Africa.

I think that many people seriously underestimate the threat in West Africa and at the same time greatly exaggerate the present threat to other parts of the world. The threat to us would however increase vastly if the situation in West Africa would spin completely out of control. If you look back at how this outbreak has progressed since March (it actually started in December 2013 but wasn't recognized as an EVD outbreak until March), you will see that the situation is now dire. The oubreak is escalating.

International efforts are finally (!) ramping up in the eleventh hour. It is desperately needed in order to control this outbreak, and stop it at the source. Making it difficult for international aid organizations to send personnel to combat this outbreak, carries a very real and chilling risk. Making it more difficult for organizations to send healthcare workers for reasons that completely lack scientific rationale, is in my opinion lunacy and most definitely counterproductive.

Specializes in RN, CHPN.
I'm sorry you have to resort to trying to undermine people because you are disappointed in the results.

I'm sorry you have to resort to undermining me because you're not happy with the results of the survey.

I just reported the survey results, and said I'm not surprised.

What are you doing?

I'll tell you what you're doing -- you're taking the focus off of the real issue and trying to put it on me instead -- and to do so, you've created this problem I have with trying to "undermine" people. Never mind those pesky survey results -- the problem is...is...is...well, it's......YOU!

I think you know by now I'm an intelligent person. That doesn't work with me.

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